MEMORIAL.
 
 BAMHUIL W3BBSTIBIR
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 
 OF 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 VROM 
 
 THE CITY OF BOSTON. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. 
 1853.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY STONE AND SMART.
 
 r LIBRARY 
 
 JJMVERSrrY OF CALIFORNt 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE death of Mr. Webster, mourned throughout the 
 whole country as a great national loss, fell with pecu- 
 liar weight upon the community among whom he had 
 so long lived ; and the expressions of feeling which 
 followed were proportionately numerous and emphatic. 
 The object of the present volume is to gather up and 
 preserve, in a permanent form, the various testimonials 
 of respect to his memory which were called forth in 
 Boston, whether by the City Government, or the vari- 
 ous Associations of the citizens themselves. It was 
 supposed that such a collection would be valued and 
 cherished by the people of Boston and its vicinity, 
 and not without interest to the community generally. 
 The task of the editor has been little more than that 
 of selection and arrangement The account of the ill- 
 ness and death of Mr. Webster was drawn up by 
 Mr. Ticknor, from notes and memoranda taken at 
 
 Marshfield at the time. 
 
 o. s. H. 
 
 BOSTOX, December, 1852.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MR. WEBSTER'S LAST AUTUMN AT MARSHFIELD .... 1 
 
 ILLNESS AND DEATH 13 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 
 
 Proceedings in the Board of Mayor and Aldermen . . 29 
 
 Proceedings in the Common Council 33 
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE COURT OP COMMON PLEAS .... 39 
 
 MEETING AT FANEUIL HALL 45 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED 
 
 STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS ... 73 
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MAS- 
 SACHUSETTS 123 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE . . . 137 
 
 PROCEEDINGS AND EESOLUTIONS OF VARIOUS ASSOCIA- 
 TIONS. 
 
 Proceedings of the Webster Executive Committee . . . 159 
 
 Proceedings of the Whig Ward and County Convention 161 
 
 Proceedings of Granite Club, No. 1 163 
 
 Proceedings of the Webster Under- Voters 167 
 
 Meeting of the Boston Merchants 169 
 
 Proceedings of the Board of Brokers 171 
 
 Proceedings of the Mercantile Library Association . . 173
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 Proceedings of the Mechanic Apprentices Library Asso- 
 ciation 175 
 
 Proceedings of Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati 177 
 
 Orders of the Governor of Massachusetts 181 
 
 Proceedings of the Bunker Hill Monument Association 183 
 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' 
 
 Association 185 
 
 Proceedings of the Boston Marine Society 187 
 
 Proceedings of the Sons of New Hampshire .... 189 
 Proceedings of the President and Fellows of Harvard 
 
 College 191 
 
 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society . .193 
 Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and 
 
 Sciences . . 195 
 
 FUNERAL 201 
 
 PROCESSION AND SERVICES ox THE THIRTIETH OF NO- 
 VEMBER 217 
 
 EULOGY . .231
 
 ME, WEBSTER'S 
 LAST AUTUMN AT MAESHFIELD.
 
 THE following article, written by Professor FELTOX, appeared in the 
 Boston Courier of October 20. It was prompted by a presentiment in 
 the mind of the writer that the illness, under which Mr. Webster had 
 been long laboring, must terminate fatally, and by a wish to prepare the 
 public for the great loss that was so soon to fall upon them. On this 
 account, as well as from its appropriate tone of thought and feeling, it is 
 here republished.
 
 MR. WEBSTER'S 
 LAST AUTUMN AT MARSHFIELD 
 
 THE illness, under which Mr. Webster haa suffered 
 at Marshfield, has excited serious alarm. The loss of 
 this eminent and illustrious statesman at the present 
 moment would not only be a heavy calamity to the 
 great interests of the country, but would strike the 
 national heart with unspeakable sorrow. At his age? 
 the disease, which has greatly impaired his physical 
 strength, could but excite sad forebodings of the result. 
 At all events, the day cannot be far distant when that 
 comprehensive wisdom and consummate genius will be 
 taken away from us, in the ordinary course of the life 
 of man. There is now, however, reason to think that 
 repose, and the invigorating breath of sea and land at 
 Marshfield, will restore the health of the great Secre- 
 tary, and send him, in due time, back to his post in 
 Washington, to close the important questions still pend- 
 ing between our government and foreign countries. A 
 few weeks longer, passed in the midst of the beloved 
 scenes to which Mr. Webster has for so many years 
 delighted to withdraw from the cares of public and 
 professional life, will, it is earnestly hoped, carry him
 
 4 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 safely through this annual attack, and strengthen his 
 'heart for another winter of strenuous toil in the ser- 
 vice of his country. We can ill spare Mr. Webster at 
 any time ; but, at the present hour, his luminous intel- 
 lect and commanding statesmanship, and his influence, 
 potent for his country's good throughout the world, are 
 needed in no common measure. Let us pray God that 
 his life may still be spared, to meet and overcome the 
 pressing urgency of our foreign affairs, and to shed 
 upon us the light of his calm wisdom, for many years 
 to come. Whether in office or out of office, the know- 
 ledge that Mr. Webster is still among us strengthens 
 our confidence that all will be well with the country. 
 We know that we can still trust in the powers of an 
 intellect that never fell below the requirements of the 
 most critical occasion, and a patriotism that never 
 shrunk from any labor or any sacrifice, which the su- 
 preme good of the country demanded. We have seen 
 him defend the Constitution, with logic and eloquence 
 never equalled in parliamentary history, when the admi- 
 ration and applause of the world rewarded the great 
 achievement. But this is not the hardest task to per- 
 form, nor the highest claim to a nation's gratitude. It 
 is a nobler duty of patriotism to save the country from 
 itself; to protect it from the excess of excited feelings, 
 and passions overwrought; to step in between contend- 
 ing frenzies, and arrest their heady course before they 
 grapple in a struggle to the death ; to expose one's 
 self to heavy blows on either side ; to fall, it may be, 
 between the exasperated parties, and, at the risk of 
 temporarily losing every object of personal desire, to 
 rescue the commonweal. And this lofty duty of pa-
 
 LAST AUTUMN AT MARSHFIELD. O 
 
 triotism becomes severer when the excesses of che- 
 rished sentiments of philanthropy are to be rebuked, ' 
 and the resentments of warm-hearted, philanthropic men 
 and parties are to be encountered in checking their 
 headlong race, before the safety of the country is fatally 
 imperilled. The leading passion of our age, and of 
 this part of the country, is enthusiastic devotion to 
 the idea of the universal rights and the brotherhood 
 of man. We are not content to bide the slow course 
 of time ; but rush, with fierce philanthropy, to the 
 overthrow of institutions inconsistent with these ideas, 
 running every hazard, and trampling down every 
 obstacle, however deeply rooted, that lies in the way 
 of the immediate accomplishment of our generous de- 
 sires. We despise the wisdom of the parable of the 
 Tares and the Wheat ; we insist on plucking out the 
 one, even at the risk of destroying the other. We 
 chafe impatiently at the restraints which the Consti- 
 tution lays upon us, and which seem to forbid our 
 eager aspirations to right a theoretic wrong. We 
 struggle against its requirements, and seek, in fine- 
 spun reasoning, the pretext on which we may break 
 the guaranties our fathers undoubtedly meant in good 
 faith to establish. This has been the tendency of the 
 abolition and the anti-slavery movement at the North. 
 The danger that sentiments, in themselves just, and 
 flowing from deep sources in the human heart, may 
 overstep the bounds of constitutional action, has long 
 been a cause of anxiety among men, on whom the 
 burden of sustaining the government of the country 
 rests. The influence of Mr. Webster's genius carries 
 with it a heavy responsibility, as to the direction in
 
 6 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 which that influence shall be exerted. Ordinary men 
 may ride their hobbies, and the world look on with 
 indifference ; they may declaim commonplaces of sen- 
 timental philanthropy, with all the comfort of knowing 
 that the course of events will not be in the least 
 affected thereby ; they gain with their partisans all 
 the honors of devotion to a great cause, with no fear 
 of hazardous consequences resulting from the utter- 
 ance of extreme or fanatical opinions. 
 
 But this cheap philanthropy of phrases and rheto- 
 rical commonplace is an indulgence which men, placed 
 by intellect or position at the head of affairs, cannot 
 safely indulge in. The strong tendency of generous 
 sentiment, when not restrained by prudence, to over- 
 ride the prescriptive rights secured by constitutions 
 and compacts, the great statesman and guide of men 
 must sternly resist, even if resistance expose him to 
 slander and vituperation, to the distrust of former 
 friends, to the misunderstanding of his motives, to the 
 charge of being a traitor to principles which his whole 
 life has pledged him to uphold. Such crises, requir- 
 ing the highest order of statesmanship and a moral 
 courage that shrinks from no personal sacrifice for the 
 general good, periods when reipublicce salus est su- 
 prema lex, arise in the history of every great nation ; 
 and woe to that nation which has not the men of civic 
 virtue equal to the peril of the time. This test of 
 greatness and statesmanship Mr. Webster has nobly 
 dared to stand ; and he has reaped the consequences 
 of calumny and vehement attack, made with an un- 
 scrupulous disregard of truth, a ruthless contempt of 
 the decencies of controversy, in proportion to the great-
 
 LAST AUTUMN AT MARSHFIELD. 7 
 
 ness of the service, and the ardor of the philanthropic 
 passions whose mad career he has helped to arrest. 
 The violence of the storm is passed ; the weight of 
 character and intelligence in the country is on his 
 side ; the verdict of approval has been pronounced 
 by a vast majority of the calm and clear-headed citi- 
 zens of the United States. Thousands, who thought 
 him wrong at first, now see that he was right, and 
 heartily acknowledge the debt 01 gratitude they owe 
 to his firmness and sagacious forecast. The union of 
 the States, having been on both sides rudely assailed, 
 is again consolidated. Hostile and incongruous fana- 
 ticisms may beset the CONSERVATOR on this side and 
 on that. He has measured their force, breasted their 
 onset, and foiled their purposes of mischief. Both 
 great parties of the country have vindicated his wis- 
 dom, by acquiescing in the patriotic course marked 
 out by his far-seeing policy, for the settlement of the 
 most dangerous question that ever menaced the wel- 
 fare of the nation. A vindictive philanthropy, here 
 and there and from time to time, reopens the flood- 
 gates of slander, in the vain hope of disturbing the 
 great statesman's repose. The firm earth does not 
 stand with more unshaken solidity against the raving 
 sea, as it roars and beats upon his Marshfield beach, 
 than he stands unmoved in the magnanimity of his 
 character, and the upholding power of conscious recti- 
 tude, looking down upon the ignominious efforts of 
 foiled enemies to undermine the grandeur of his posi- 
 tion. 
 
 " The Farm " at Marshfield is worthy to be the rest- 
 ing-place of its illustrious owner. It is shielded, by
 
 8 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 a range of beautiful hills, from the violence of our 
 north-easterly storms. It has a distant view of the 
 ocean, beyond the lowlands, which every high tide 
 overflows. On one side, a wooded promontory juts 
 into the sea ; and on the other rises a sloping high- 
 land, on the brow of which, in the deep repose of 
 nature, his kindred rest in their long sleep, with no 
 sounds above or around them but the murmurs of the 
 wind through the foliage of the drooping trees, or the 
 song of birds, or the solemn voice of the sea, speak- 
 ing eternally from its vast depths. The undulating 
 surface sweeps up from the marshes and forms a table- 
 land, on which the house is built; then gently falls 
 into a smooth and spreading lawn ; then, by a steeper 
 slope, it ascends to the western range of hills, which, 
 on that side, shut in the picture, and bound a scene 
 of harmonious, yet richly varied and sweetly contrasted 
 beauty. As you look down from these hills, your 
 heart beats with the unspeakable emotion that such 
 objects inspire ; but the charm is heightened by the 
 reflection, that the capabilities of nature have been 
 unfolded by the skill and taste of one whose fame 
 fills the world j ' that an illustrious existence has here 
 blended its activity with the processes of the genial 
 earth, and breathed its power into the breath of heaven, 
 and drawn its inspiration from the air, the sea, and 
 the sky, around and above ; and that here, at this 
 moment, the same illustrious existence is, for a time, 
 struggling in a doubtful contest with a foe, to whom 
 all men must, sooner or later, lay down their arms. 
 Here, but a few weeks since, Mr. Webster was accus- 
 tomed to drive the transient guest over his estate ;
 
 LAST AUTUMN AT MARSHFIELD. 9 
 
 visiting his fields, his ocean shore, his flocks, and his 
 herds ; pointing out the prospect, and speaking with 
 tender emotion of the sad and happy memories the 
 varied views recalled ; conversing with the rustic neigh- 
 bors whom he chanced to meet in kind and genial 
 tones, and on subjects which he and they understood 
 alike ; uttering, from time to time, glorious thoughts, 
 suggested by the scene, in language of massive beauty 
 and grandeur, which made the moment memorable in 
 the listener's life. But this has been in some measure 
 interrupted. That noble form, that surpassing strength 
 of constitution, have drooped under the protracted ill- 
 ness which has withheld him from the turmoil raging 
 outside of that secluded spot; the drives over the 
 hills, and along the loud-resounding sea, which he 
 loved so much, have ceased. Solemn thoughts ex- 
 clude from his mind the inferior topics of the fleeting 
 hour; and the great and awful themes of the future, 
 now seemingly opening before him, themes to which 
 his mind has always and instinctively turned its pro- 
 foundest meditations, now fill the hours won from 
 the weary lassitude of illness, or from the public du- 
 ties, which sickness and retirement cannot make him 
 forget or neglect. The eloquent speculations of Cicero 
 on the immortality of the soul, and the admirable 
 arguments against the Epicurean philosophy, put into 
 the mouth of one of the colloquists, in the book on 
 the Nature of the Gods, share his thoughts with the 
 sure testimony of the Word of God. But no day 
 passes that the affairs of the country do not occupy 
 his attention. His great mind never applied itself 
 with a calmer or more comprehensive grasp to the
 
 10 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 duties of his department. The intellectual power as- 
 serts its supremacy over physical weakness and tedious 
 disease, with an unfaltering energy of soul that in 
 itself is a stronger argument of its immortality than 
 Cicero ever uttered in the majestic accents of the Latin 
 tongue. 
 
 These are the dignified pursuits that grace the days 
 of suffering passed by the illustrious statesman of 
 Marshfield. The respectful sympathies of the country- 
 surround him in his hours of illness, and the prayers 
 of good men go up to Heaven for his speedy restora- 
 tion. If it is written in the inscrutable decrees of God 
 that he is to be recalled from the scene of his earthly 
 labors before his work is completed, if so heavy a 
 bereavement is soon to fall on the American people, 
 may no man have cause to reproach himself that he 
 strove to embitter the last moments of so illustrious 
 a life by harsh imputations or slanderous speech. 
 When Mr. Webster is withdrawn from the scenes of 
 this world, the party asperities which have raged so 
 fiercely round him will be drowned in the tears of a 
 nation's grief; and he who has so far forgotten the 
 claims of patriotic greatness as to join in the ignoble 
 work of calumniating a long life, exhausted in memo- 
 rable services to the country and the age, will bear 
 in his heart the burden of an upbraiding conscience, 
 and a sense of wrong done to the common benefactor 
 of every American citizen, long after the day of atone- 
 ment is passed. For, whatever heated partisans may 
 say while Mr. Webster lives, hereafter, when the histo- 
 rian shall look back upon the first century of the 
 American Republic, the two names which will shine
 
 LAST AUTUMN AT MARSHFIELD. 11 
 
 with most unfading lustre and the serenest glory, high 
 above all others, are Washington and Webster. There 
 are men who are remembered only as the revilers of 
 Washington; there may be men who will be remem- 
 bered only as the slanderers of Webster.
 
 ILLNESS AND DEATH.
 
 ILLNESS AND DEATH. 
 
 MR. WEBSTER died at Marshfield, on Sunday morn- 
 ing, October 24th, 1852. 
 
 His health, as has been intimated in the preceding 
 paper, had failed during the summer from his severe 
 public labors and from the progress of an obscure 
 disease in the liver of long standing, accelerated, no 
 doubt, by the shock which his whole system had re- 
 ceived when he was thrown from his carriage in the 
 preceding May. He was aware of his decline, and 
 watched it with a careful observation; frequently giv- 
 ing intimations to those nearest to him of the failure 
 in strength which he noticed, and of the result which 
 he apprehended must be approaching. Towards the 
 end of September he seemed, indeed, to rally a little ; 
 but it was soon apparent to others, no less than to 
 himself, that, as the days passed on, each brought with 
 it some slight proof of a gradual decay in his bodily 
 powers and resources. 
 
 On Sunday evening, October 10, he desired a friend, 
 who was sitting with him, to read to him the passage 
 in the ninth chapter of St. Mark's Gospel, where the
 
 16 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 man brings his child to Jesus to be cured, and the 
 Saviour tells him, "If thou canst believe, all things 
 are possible to him that believeth ; and straightway 
 the father of the child cried out, with tears, Lord, I 
 believe, help thou mine unbelief." "Now," he conti- 
 nued, " turn to the tenth chapter of St. John, and 
 read from the verse where it is said, ' Many of the 
 Jews believed on him.' " After this he dictated a 
 few lines, and directed them to be signed with his 
 name and dated, Sunday Evening, October 10, 1852. 
 " This," he then added, " is the inscription to be placed 
 on my monument." A few days later, on the 15th, 
 he recurred to the same subject, and revised and 
 corrected with his own hand what he had earlier dic- 
 tated, so as to make the whole read as follows : 
 
 " Lord, I believe ; help thou 
 mine unbelief." 
 
 Philosophical 
 argument, especially 
 that drawn from the vastness of 
 the Universe, in comparison with the 
 apparent insignificance of this globe, has some- 
 times shaken my reason for the faith which is in me ; 
 but my heart has always assured and reassured me, that the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Divine Reality. The 
 Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human 
 production. This belief enters into the 
 very depth of my conscience. 
 The whole history of man 
 proves it. 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER.
 
 ILLNESS AND DEATH. 17 
 
 When he first dictated this inscription, he said to 
 the friend who wrote it down "If I get well, and 
 write a book on Christianity, about which we have 
 talked, we can attend more fully to this matter. But, 
 if I should be taken away suddenly, I do not wish 
 to leave any duty of this kind unperformed. I want 
 to leave somewhere a declaration of my belief in 
 Christianity. I do not wish to go into any doctrinal 
 distinctions in regard to the person of Jesus, but I 
 wish to express my belief in his divine mission ; " 
 solemn and remarkable words, by which it is plain 
 that, having given the deliberate testimony of his 
 life to the truth of Christianity, as a miraculous reve- 
 lation of God's will to man, he desired, though dead, 
 still to bear the same testimony from his grave to 
 the same great truth. The monument on which he 
 intended this striking inscription should be placed, he 
 has elsewhere directed should be of " exactly the same 
 size and form" with the modest monuments he had 
 already erected, within the same inclosure, for his 
 children and for their mother. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 19th of October, he was too feeble 
 to appear at the dinner-table, and desired that his son 
 might take his place at its head, till he should be 
 able again to go down stairs ; " or," he added, a until 
 I give it up to him altogether." That evening was 
 the last time his friends had the happiness to see 
 him in his accustomed seat at his own hospitable fire- 
 side. 
 
 Warned by his increasing debility he had already 
 given some directions concerning a final disposition of 
 his worldly affairs; but he now desired that his will 
 
 3
 
 18 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 might be immediately drawn up in legal form, and 
 the next day he dictated a considerable portion of it 
 with great precision and a beautiful appropriateness 
 of phraseology. Some of its directions are very strik- 
 ing, not only from their import, but from the simpli- 
 city with which their meaning is set forth : 
 
 "I wish to be buried," he says, "without the least 
 show or ostentation, but in a manner respectful to my 
 neighbors, whose kindness has contributed so much to 
 the. happiness of me and mine, and for whose pros- 
 perity I offer sincere prayers to God." 
 
 After this, every thing relating to his personal con- 
 cerns is wisely and well provided for, and all his 
 immediate kindred tenderly remembered. He then 
 goes on: 
 
 "My servant, William Johnson, is a free man. I 
 bought his freedom not long ago for six hundred dol- 
 lars. No demand is to be made upon him for any 
 portion of this sum; but, so long as is agreeable, I 
 hope he will remain with the family. Monicha Mc- 
 Carty, Sarah Smith, and Ann Bean, colored persons, 
 now also, and, for a long time, in my service, are all 
 free. They are very well-deserving, and whoever comes 
 after me, must be kind to them." 
 
 And then, with the usual legal forms, this remark- 
 able and characteristic document is closed. 
 
 The day when the preparation of the will was com- 
 pleted Thursday was one in which Mr. Webster 
 had attended to much public business, besides giving 
 his usual careful directions about every thing touch- 
 ing his household and his large estate. It was in- 
 tended, therefore, to postpone the final signing and
 
 ILLNESS AND DEATH. 19 
 
 execution of that paper until the next morning ; more 
 especially as his forenoons were uniformly more com- 
 fortable than the later portions of the day. But, in 
 the afternoon, his complaint assumed a new and more 
 formidable character. Blood was suddenly ejected 
 from his stomach. The symptom was decisive. He 
 fixed an intensely scrutinizing look upon Dr. Jef- 
 fries, his attending physician and personal friend, 
 and inquired what it was? He was answered that it 
 came from the diseased part. "What is it?" he re- 
 peated with the same piercing look, and then, without 
 waiting for a reply, added, " That, is the enemy ; 
 if you can conquer that" he was interrupted by a 
 recurrence of the attack, but his mind, it was obvious, 
 was already made up. He knew that his time must 
 be short, and that whatever he had to do must be 
 done quickly. 
 
 He determined, therefore, at once to execute his 
 will. It was made ready and brought to him. He 
 ascertained that its provisions and arrangements were 
 entirely satisfactory to the persons most interested in 
 them, and then, having signed it with a larger bold- 
 ness and freedom in the signature than was common to 
 him, he folded his hands together, and said solemnly, 
 " I thank God for strength to perform a sensible 
 act." In a full voice, and with a most reverential 
 manner, he went on and prayed aloud for some mi 
 nutes, ending with the Lord's Prayer, and the ascrip- 
 tion, "And now unto God the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, be praise forever more. Peace on earth, and 
 good will towards men;" after which, clasping his 
 hands together, as a,t first, he added, with great em-
 
 20 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 phasis, "That is the happiness the essence Good 
 will towards men." 
 
 Much exhausted with the effort, he desired all but 
 Dr. Jeffries and a favorite colored nurse, who had 
 long been in his service, to leave the room, that he 
 might rest. But, before he slept, he said, "Doctor, 
 you look sober. You think I shall not be here in 
 the morning. But I shall. I shall greet the morn- 
 ing light." 
 
 The next forenoon, he repeated a similar assurance 
 to his kind and faithful physician, who, as he thought, 
 again looked sad, though he was only overcome with 
 fatigue and long watching. " Cheer up, Doctor 
 cheer up I shall not die to-day. You will get me 
 along to-day" And so he went on through Friday, 
 giving comfort and kind thoughts to all who surround- 
 ed him. In the course of the morning, he attended 
 to the public business that needed immediate care, 
 and gave directions for every thing about his farm 
 and household as usual, and, in the evening - sent 
 for the person who managed his affairs, and directed 
 him, with more than his customary exactness, concern- 
 ing all arrangements for the next day. 
 
 But when the next day Saturday came, he felt 
 as he had not felt before. He felt that it was his 
 last day. About eight o'clock in the morning, there- 
 fore, he desired that all in the room should leave it, 
 except Dr. Jeffries, who had been his physician for a 
 long period, and who had now been in constant at- 
 tendance on him, living in the house, for above a week. 
 During the night Mr. Webster perceived that he 
 had grown weaker by excessive loss of blood from the
 
 ILLNESS AND DEATH. 21 
 
 stomach. He had just suffered afresh in the same way. 
 But when he was certain that he was alone with 
 his professional adviser, and that no loving ear would 
 be pained by what he should say, he spoke in a per- 
 fectly clear and even voice, but with much solemnity 
 of manner, and said, "Doctor, you have carried me 
 through the night. I think you will get me through 
 the day. I shall die to-night." The faithful physi- 
 cian, much moved, said, after a pause, "You are 
 right, Sir." Mr. Webster then went on: "I wish 
 you, therefore, to send an express to Boston for some 
 younger person to be with you. I shall die to^night. 
 You are exhausted, and must be relieved. Who shall 
 it be?" Dr. Jeffries suggested a professional brother, 
 Dr. J. Mason Warren, adding that he was the son of 
 an old and faithful friend of Mr. Webster. Mr. Web- 
 ster replied instantly, " Let him be sent for." 
 
 Dr. Jeffries left the room to prepare a note for the 
 purpose, and, on returning, found that Mr. Webster 
 had made all the arrangements necessary for its 
 despatch, having given minute directions who should 
 go; what horse and what vehicle he should use; 
 what road he should follow; where he should take 
 a fresh relay; and how he should execute his er- 
 rand on reaching the city. He also desired that pro- 
 vision should be made for summoning some other pro- 
 fessional friend, if Dr. Warren could not be found, or 
 could not come; and, on being told that this, too, 
 had been foreseen and cared for, he seemed much 
 gratified, and said emphatically, " Right, right." 
 
 After some repose, he conversed >with Mrs. Web- 
 ster, with his son, and with two or three other of the
 
 22 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 persons nearest and dearest to him in life, in the 
 most affectionate and tender manner, not concealing 
 from them his view of the approach of death, but con- 
 soling them with religious thoughts and assurances, as 
 if support were more needful for their hearts than for 
 his own. On different occasions, in the course of the 
 day, he prayed audibly. Oftener, he seemed to be 
 in silent prayer and meditation. But, at all times, 
 he was quickly attentive to whatever was doing or 
 needed to be done. He gave detailed orders for the 
 adjustment of whatever in his affairs required it, and 
 superintended and arranged every thing for his own 
 departure from life, as if it had been that of another 
 person, for whom it was his duty to take the mi- 
 nutest care. 
 
 After nightfall, he received at his bedside each 
 member of his family and household, the friends 
 gathered under his roof, and the servants, most of 
 whom having been long in his service had become 
 to him as affectionate and faithful friends. It was 
 a solemn and religious parting, in which, while all 
 around him were overwhelmed with sorrow, he pre 
 served his accustomed equanimity, speaking to each 
 words of appropriate kindness and consolation which 
 they will treasure hereafter among their most pre- 
 cious and life-long possessions. 
 
 During the whole course of his illness, Mr. Web- 
 ster never spoke of his disease or of his sufferings, 
 except in the most general terms, or in order to give 
 information to his medical advisers; but it was plain 
 to Dr. Jackson, who was twice called in consulta- 
 tion ; to Dr. Warren, who was with him during the
 
 ILLNESS AND DEATH. 23 
 
 last night of his life ; and to Dr. Jeffries, who was 
 his constant attendant from the first, that he noted 
 and understood every thing that related to his condi- 
 tion, and its successive changes. His conversation on 
 this, as on all other subjects, was perfectly easy and 
 simple ; the deep tones of his voice remained un- 
 changed ; his gentleness was uniform ; and the 
 expressions of his affection to those who approached 
 him, and even to those who were absent, but who 
 were carefully remembered by him in messages of 
 kindness, were true, tender, and faithful to the end. 
 No complaint escaped from him ; nor did he show 
 the least impatience under his infirmities, or the least 
 reluctance to die. He felt the value and the power 
 of life, and he was full of love for his home, and for 
 all that surrounded him there and made him happy. 
 But his submission to the will of God was entire. 
 He said, on one occasion, "I shall lie here patiently 
 until I die ; " and he did so. But, through those 
 wearisome days, he preserved his natural manner in 
 every thing, and maintained, without effort, those just 
 and true relations between himself and all persons, 
 things, and occurrences about him, which through life 
 had marked him so strongly and had given such 
 dignity and power to his character. 
 
 From the morning of Saturday, when he had an- 
 nounced to his attendant physician what nobody, 
 until that time, had intimated that he "should die 
 that night," the whole strength of his great faculties 
 seemed to be directed to obtain for him a plain and 
 clear perception of his onward passage to another 
 world, and of his feelings and condition at the precise
 
 24 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 moment when he should be entering its confines. 
 Once, being faint, he asked if he were not then dying ? 
 and on being answered that he was not, but that he 
 was near to death, he replied simply, "Well;" as if 
 the frank and exact reply were what he had desired 
 to receive. A little later, when his kind physician 
 repeated to him that striking text of Scripture, 
 " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
 of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me ; thy 
 rod and thy staff, they comfort me" he seemed 
 less satisfied, and said, " Yes; but the fact, the fact I 
 want;" desiring to know if he were to regard these 
 words as an intimation, that he was already within that 
 dark valley. On another occasion, he inquired whether 
 it were likely that he should again eject blood from 
 his stomach before death, and, being told that it was 
 improbable, he asked, " Then what shall you do ? " 
 Being answered that he would be supported by stimu- 
 lants, and rendered as easy as possible by the opiates 
 that had suited him so well, he inquired, at once, if 
 the stimulant should not be given immediately ; anx- 
 ious again to know if the hand of death were not 
 already upon him. And on being told, that it would 
 not be then given, he replied, " When you give it to 
 me, I shall know that I may drop off at once." 
 
 Being satisfied on this point, and that he should, 
 therefore, have a final warning, he said a moment 
 afterwards, "I will, then, put myself in a position to 
 obtain a little repose." In this he was successful. He 
 had intervals of rest to the last; but on rousing from 
 them, he showed that he was still intensely anxious 
 to preserve his consciousness, and to watch for the
 
 ILLNESS AND DEATH. 25 
 
 moment and act of his departure, so as to comprehend 
 it. Awaking from one of these slumbers, late in the 
 night, he asked distinctly if he were alive, and on be- 
 ing assured that he was, and that his family was col- 
 lected around his bed, he said, in a perfectly natural 
 tone, as if assenting to what had been told him, be- 
 cause he himself perceived that it was true, " I still 
 live." These were his last coherent and intelligible 
 words. At twenty-three minutes before three o'clock, 
 without a struggle or a groan, all signs of life ceased 
 to be visible ; his vital organs giving way at last so 
 slowly and gradually as to indicate, what every thing 
 during his illness had already shown, that his intel- 
 lectual and moral faculties still maintained an extra- 
 ordinary mastery amidst the failing resources of his 
 physical constitution. 
 
 And so there passed out of this world one of its 
 great, beneficent, and controlling spirits. As the sun 
 rose on that quiet Sabbath morning the expected, yet 
 dreaded, event was announced as a public calamity, 
 first, by the solemn discharge of minute guns, and after- 
 wards by the tolling of bells, over a large part of the 
 land a spontaneous outbreak of the general feeling 
 at the loss all had suffered. How heavily it fell on 
 the hearts of men in this city, where, he was best 
 known, and especially what deep grief, mingled with 
 bitter recollections of the past, and anxious forebod- 
 ings for the future, marked each of the three memo- 
 rable days, consecrated as no three similar days ever 
 were consecrated among us, to public mourning, may 
 be partly gathered from the records which this volume 
 is intended to collect and preserve. The rest little 
 4
 
 26 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 of which can be recorded will dwell, among their 
 saddest and most sacred thoughts, in the memories of 
 all who shared in the moving services of those solemn 
 occasions, or who gathered around that peaceful, sea- 
 girt grave, and will be transmitted by them to their 
 children, as the warning traditions of a great national 
 sorrow.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL.
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE BOARD OF MAYOR 
 AND ALDERMEN. 
 
 AT an early hour of the morning of Monday, Oc- 
 tober 25, the Mayor issued an order for a special 
 session of the Board, to testify their sense of the 
 great loss which the City of Boston had sustained in 
 the death of Mr. Webster ; and to consult as to the 
 measures proper to be adopted to honor his memory. 
 On taking the chair, His HONOR addressed the Board 
 as follows : 
 
 Gentlemen of .the Board of Aldermen, I have called 
 this special meeting of the Board to perform the pain- 
 ful duty of officially announcing to you the death of 
 the Honorable Daniel Webster, Secretary of State of 
 the United States. He died calmly and peacefully at 
 his residence in Marshfield, yesterday (Sunday) morn- 
 ing, between the hours of two and three o'clock, and 
 the country is overwhelmed with sorrow at this mourn- 
 ful event. There are seasons, Gentlemen, when the 
 heart is too full for utterance, and this is eminently 
 one of them. I shall not, therefore, attempt to ob- 
 trude, upon this solemn occasion, any poor words of 
 my own, but leave to your good judgment to adopt
 
 30 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 such measures as may be befitting, to testify the 
 deep sense entertained by the Board, and the citizens 
 generally, of the great loss which has been sustained 
 by this afflictive dispensation. 
 
 As early as practicable after the sad intelligence 
 was received here, I caused the bells of the churches 
 to be tolled, to announce the event to the people. 
 
 The Chair is now ready to receive any proposition 
 that may be made. 
 
 Alderman OBER then addressed the Board as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Mr. Mayor, I rise in conformity with the prompt- 
 ings df my heart, to offer an order for the appoint- 
 ment of a committee to report such measures as shall 
 be appropriate to testify the great respect and attach- 
 ment we all of us feel for him whose loss we now la- 
 ment him whom we have ever regarded as the pil- 
 lar of our constitutional liberty and as the friend of 
 the oppressed in every nation whose opinions and 
 sentiments will ever shed upon his name a lustre 
 which cannot be obliterated. 
 
 Whereas, His Honor the Mayor has announced to this Board the 
 death of the Honorable Daniel Webster, Secretary of State of the 
 United States ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That this information is receiA'ed by us with the most 
 profound feelings of respect and veneration for the illustrious cha- 
 racter of the deceased, and with the deepest grief for the loss which 
 has been sustained by the cause of Humanity and true Constitu- 
 tional Liberty throughout the world. 
 
 Resolved, That while in common with the whole American people 
 we feel the death of Mr. Webster to be a great National calamity, 
 we cannot but also feel, that to the inhabitants of this city of his 
 early adoption, and with whom for nearly half a century his name
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 31 
 
 and fame have been so closely identified, this national calamity is 
 also a sad domestic bereavement. 
 
 Resolved, That the City Council, in a body, will attend the fune- 
 ral of Mr. Webster at Marshfield; that the members thereof will 
 wear crape on the left arm for the space of thirty days ; and that 
 the same badge of mourning for the illustrious deceased, and for 
 the same length of time, be recommended to the citizens generally. 
 
 Resolved, That a joint special Committee be now appointed, to 
 consider and report forthwith, what measures it is expedient for 
 the City Council to adopt in further testimony of that profound 
 respect and veneration for the memory of Mr. Webster, which the 
 whole community so deeply feel and desire publicly to express. 
 
 Resolved, That the City Council, as the representatives of the 
 people of Boston, tender to the family of Mr. Webster their most 
 sincere and heartfelt sympathy in this season of their deep sorrow 
 and affliction, and that a copy of these resolutions, under the seal 
 of the City, be transmitted to Mrs. Webster, and also to the Presi- 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 Alderman REED seconded the Resolutions, and, in 
 doing so, addressed the Board as follows: 
 
 There seems to be little occasion for any remarks 
 at the present time, from any member of this Board. 
 The news of the death of Mr. Webster is now rapidly 
 flying to the remotest extremities of the country, and 
 the heart of this nation is at this moment filled with 
 the same feelings and thoughts with which our own 
 minds are occupied ; and these may, perhaps, be as 
 well expressed by silence as by words. 
 
 It seems to me to have been among the most for- 
 tunate events of the present municipal year, that Mr. 
 Webster received the unanimous invitation of the City 
 Council to address his fellow-citizens in Faneuil Hall, 
 and that the invitation was accepted by him. We 
 have reason to think that this occurrence was highly
 
 32 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 grateful to his own feelings, as it was honorable to 
 the City Council and acceptable to the citizens. 
 
 The opportunity then afforded to the members of 
 this Board, of presenting their respects to him form- 
 ally, will always remain among their most cherished 
 recollections ; and the citizens, who were present at 
 Faneuil Hall, will tell their children and their child- 
 ren's children, that they saw and heard Daniel Web- 
 ster. Could we, at that time, have foreseen how soon 
 lie would leave us, what solemnity, what intensity of 
 interest, would have been given to the occasion! 
 
 The death, as well as the birth, of distinguished in- 
 dividuals, forms an epoch in the history of nations and 
 of the world ; and I have sometimes thought that 
 there was a tendency in the providential course of 
 events, for great men to cluster together in their 
 death as in their life. However this may be, the pre- 
 sent year will be forever memorable in the annals of 
 history, for the deaths of distinguished men, men 
 whose death caused a profound sensation not only 
 throughout their own country, but throughout the 
 world. I need only mention the names of Henry 
 Clay, the Duke of Wellington, and Daniel Webster. 
 
 The Resolutions were here passed with great una- 
 nimity. Ihe Mayor appointed Aldermen Ober, Reed, 
 Rich, and Gary, a Committee on the part of the 
 Board. 
 
 The Board then took a recess, to allow concurrent 
 action of the Common Council.
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE COMMON COUNCIL. 
 
 The lower branch of the City Council convened 
 shortly after the hour of the upper branch, the Presi- 
 dent, Henry J. Gardner, Esq., in the chair. 
 
 On calling the Council to order, Mr. GARDNER spoke 
 as follows. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Common Council This special 
 meeting of the Council has been convened on a most 
 solemn occasion. The letter I hold in my hand, from 
 his Honor the Mayor, contains the onicial announce- 
 ment that Daniel Webster is no more. 
 
 Seventy-one years ago next January, in a rude farm- 
 house, then the most northerly inhabited by a white 
 man in the interior of New England, Mr. Webster 
 first saw the light, with no birthright but the good 
 name of his father and the prayers of a pious mother. 
 His early years were passed amid the wild beauties 
 of the mountain district of New Hampshire, then 
 clothed in their primeval forests ; his physical pow- 
 ers developed by the labors of the farm on that stern 
 soil, and his mental faculties quickened by the legends 
 and traditions of his paternal hearth. 
 
 In due time, we find him transferred to the vene- 
 rable Academy at Exeter, and thence to Dartmouth 
 College. After his graduation, he taught school in 
 the western part of Maine for a season, and then 
 he entered, with his characteristic assiduity and ardor, 
 
 5
 
 34 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 on the study of his profession. During a few years 
 we see him putting aside his hopes of fame and pro- 
 fessional aspirations, to watch the declining health of 
 his father, and to lighten or remove the home labors 
 that weighed upon him. At that' parent's decease, he 
 removed to the then capital of his native State, 
 Portsmouth. Here acquiring fame, wider and wider 
 extended every year, he at length was elected, once 
 and again, a member of Congress. 
 
 It may be worthy of mention that, during his long 
 public life, he was a candidate directly before the 
 people but five times, and was never defeated. At 
 his first election to Congress, from New Hampshire, 
 and at his first, too, from Massachusetts, he led his 
 ticket very largely; and on his reelection, in both 
 instances, and also on his election as a member of the 
 Convention to revise our State Constitution, he had 
 no organized opposition. So surely does the commu- 
 nity pay homage to surpassing intellect, when accom- 
 panied and graced by purity of private life. 
 
 But it is not needful to trace him step by step far- 
 ther. From his removal to our city, his name be- 
 comes historic, his words and deeds and life are 
 household themes. Henceforth the farmer's son, from 
 an obscure section of New Hampshire, becomes the 
 statesman, jurist, orator, patriot, at whose words lis- 
 tening senates were convinced, whose mind swayed 
 the destinies of mighty nations, and at whose death 
 a whole country now mourns. 
 
 A great light is extinguished, and the world is the 
 darker for it. We had three distinguished statesmen, 
 differing in their intellectual tendencies, but towering
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 35 
 
 amid and above the great men of our land ; and now 
 the last and the mightiest has left us. 
 
 Since most of us came upon the sphere of man- 
 hood, we have looked to him in his meridian splen- 
 dor with love, and admiration, and devotion. We have 
 listened to his words of power, have studied his com- 
 prehensive writings, and turned to him, not in vain, 
 when doubt and darkness overshadowed the future. 
 
 But it is not we, not a State, or section, or party, 
 whose loss alone is irreparable ; our country weeps 
 her ablest son ; the Constitution, its exponent and 
 defender; the Union, for which he perilled hopes and 
 friends, esteem and love, the Union mourns its warm- 
 est advocate. 
 
 It was but yesterday, as it were, that we, as a 
 body, saw him and heard him; heard that eloquence 
 which lives now but in memory, and, in a few short 
 years, will be historic only. The words of the world's 
 great poet apply to him 
 
 " That, when he speaks, 
 The air, a chartered libertine, is still, 
 And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears 
 To steal his sentences." 
 
 
 
 But he is gone. The world has poured out its rich 
 treasury of gifts upon him, "honors and fame and 
 troops of friends," till there was nothing left to halo 
 more greatness round the name of Daniel Webster. 
 
 And living thus honorably like a Christian patriot, 
 he has died. How great the satisfaction that his un- 
 dimmed mind, resigned and calm throughout, leaning 
 on that faith we all should cling to, has passed cheer-
 
 36 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 fully along the final road. He went calm, submissive, 
 self-possessed no duty unfulfilled e_arth's greatest 
 honors exhausted. 
 
 "No cause for sorrow, then; but thankfulness, 
 Life's business well performed, 
 When weary age full willingly 
 
 Resigns itself to sleep, 
 In sure and certain hope. 
 Oh end to be desired, whene'er as now, 
 
 A life of service passed, 
 The seasonable fruit of faith 
 
 And good feport, and good 
 Example have survived." 
 
 The President having concluded his remarks, read 
 the following letter from the Mayor: 
 
 CITY HALL, Boston, October 25, 1852. 
 
 HENRY J. GARDNER, Esq., President of the Common Council. 
 
 SIR I have summoned a special meeting of the 
 members of the Common Council, for the purpose of 
 communicating to them the proceedings of the Board 
 of Mayor and Aldermen on the melancholy intelligence 
 of the death of the Honorable Daniel Webster. 
 
 I respectfully ask your Board to take such measures 
 as may be deemed proper, to testify their sensg of the 
 loss sustained by our city and the country, by this 
 afflictive dispensation of Divine Providence. In order 
 to announce the sad event, I caused the bells of the 
 Churches to be tolled from 9 to 10 o'clock, yesterday 
 morning. 
 
 BENJAMIN SEAVER, Mayor. 
 
 The Resolutions were here unanimously passed in 
 concurrence, the members of the Council rising, an
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 37 
 
 event of unusual, if not unprecedented, occurrence. 
 Messrs. Lawrence, Thompson, Haskell, Hale, Thomas, 
 Calrow, and Nicholson, were joined to the Committee 
 of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. The Council 
 then took a recess. 
 
 SECOND SESSION OF THE BOAKD OF MAYOR AND ALDERMEN. 
 
 At the reassembling of the Mayor and Aldermen, 
 the following Report was made by Alderman OBER : 
 
 The Joint Special Committee of the City Council, 
 who were authorized, by an order of this date, to con- 
 sider and report what further measures should be 
 adopted to testify the loss this City and our Country 
 has sustained, in the recent decease of the Honorable 
 Daniel Webster; having attended to that duty, sub- 
 mit the following report. 
 
 First. That in addition to the measures suggested in the reso- 
 lutions already adopted, the Committee recommend that the halls 
 of both branches of the City Government, together with Faneuil 
 Hall, be shrouded with emblems of mourning, such emblems to 
 reinaiiTfor the space of three months. 
 
 Second. That the American flag be immediately displayed at half- 
 mast upon City Hall, on Faneuil Hall, and upon the flagstaff on 
 the Common, and remain during the daytime every day, until after 
 the funeral of Mr. "Webster shall have taken place ; and that mer- 
 chants and masters of vessels in port be requested to display their 
 flags at half-mast during the same time. 
 
 Third. That on the day set apart for the funeral, all public 
 business be suspended ; that the citizens be requested to close their 
 places of business during the entire day ; that signal guns be fired 
 on the Common and on Blackstone Square every fifteen minutes, 
 commencing at sunrise, and continuing until the hour fixed for the 
 performance of the funeral ceremonies, when minute guns be fired 
 for one hour, and during that hour all the bells in the city be tolled.
 
 38 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Fourth. That a eulogy on the life, character, and public servi- 
 ces of Mr. Webster be pronounced before the government and 
 citizens of Boston, in Faneuil Hall, by such individual, at such 
 time, and attended by such ceremonies as the Committee hereinafter 
 recommended to be appointed, shall determine. 
 
 Fifth. That a Committee, consisting of the Board of Mayor and 
 Aldermen, the President of the Common Council, and one mem- 
 ber of the Council from each ward, be appointed as a Committee 
 of Arrangements, with full power to carry into effect the foregoing 
 recommendations, and to take such other action in the premises as 
 said Committee deem expedient and proper. 
 
 The report was unanimously accepted, and ordered 
 to be sent down. Adjourned. 
 
 SECOND SESSION OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 On the reassembling of the Council, a messenger 
 was received from the other branch, bringing the 
 above Report, offered by Alderman Ober. After re- 
 marks of a brief, pertinent, and eloquent character by 
 Messrs. HOBART and LAWRENCE, the Report was una- 
 nimously adopted. 
 
 The President then appointed the following gentle- 
 men on the Committee, on the part of this branch, 
 mentioned in the last section of the above Report: 
 
 Messrs. Stearns, of Ward 1; Calrow, of Ward 2; 
 Bradbury, of Ward 3; Lawrence, of Ward 4; Jewell, 
 of Ward 5 ; Thomas, of Ward 6 ; Nicholson, of Ward 7 ; 
 Haskell, of Ward 8 ; Thompson, of Ward 9 ; Lincoln, 
 of Ward 10 ; Hale, of Ward 11 ; and Southard, of Ward 
 12. 
 
 The Council then adjourned.
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 IN 
 
 THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE COURT OF COMMON 
 
 PLEAS. 
 
 AT the opening of the Court of Common Pleas, on 
 Monday morning, October 25, Hon. JOHN C. PARK, 
 County Attorney, rose and spoke as follows: 
 
 May it please your Honor I rise, with your per- 
 mission, to make an announcement and offer a mo- 
 tion. I do this partly at the request of my friends 
 of the Bar, and partly because it is my duty, hold- 
 ing the office, for the time being, of Attorney for the 
 Commonwealth in these Courts, to notice an occasion, 
 on which the Commonwealth, as such, has suffered an 
 irreparable bereavement. 
 
 Daniel Webster, the Patriot, the Jurist, the States- 
 man, is no more. 
 
 I rise to pronounce no panegyric, no eulogy ! This 
 is neither the time nor occasion nor am I the man. 
 When the avalanche has fallen from the mountain top, 
 when the thunderbolt has cleft the forest oak, deep 
 silence succeeds the shock; and now the public pulse 
 has ceased its throbbings, and holy, silent awe is the 
 loudest oratory. Time will be, when we shall awake 
 to a full realization of the event; and then eloquent 
 lips will pour forth a nation's feelings.
 
 42 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 How many thousands sympathize in the emotions 
 of this hour ! The news, lightning-winged, has already 
 pervaded the Continent. The fisherman, on the Banks, 
 pauses in his toil to echo back the wail, which reaches 
 him from the shore. The trapper, in the valleys of 
 the Rocky Mountains, catches it, as it rolls across the 
 prairies. The industry of the nation feels that it has 
 lost its best friend; and even on the thrones of 
 Europe, the monarchs of the Old World tremble as 
 they learn that that master spirit, which has wielded 
 a moral power over the destinies of nations more po- 
 tent than their armed legions or their diplomatic ma- 
 chinery, now stands with Prophets of old and Apos- 
 tles of truth, in humble adoration before the throne 
 of Omnipotence. 
 
 Around us in our very midst how every thing 
 speaks to us of him! Yonder monument to Liberty, 
 baptized in the floods of his eloquence, yonder Pil- 
 grim Rock, consecrated by his lips, in the spirit of 
 Puritan truth, the very landmarks and boundaries 
 of our land, from the bleak Northeast to the sultry 
 Southwest, are established under his wise, far-seeing 
 guidance. Not a waterfall or cataract in all New 
 England, rendered useful to mankind by those dis- 
 creet measures which always met his cordial support, 
 that did not seem on yesterday's holy morn, to have 
 rolled its course seaward with a more subdued and 
 plaintive murmur. 
 
 The Indian, when his Chief goes on his long pil- 
 grimage to the spirit-land, buries with him his war 
 implements, his tomahawk, and arrows. We, of a 
 Christian faith, bury, far away from our Chief, the
 
 COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. 43 
 
 barbed arrows of political strife and party rancor, 
 and gaze, with mournful gratitude, on the countless 
 benefits which he has conferred upon us. 
 
 Threescore years and ten he has been spared to 
 us. Thirty, at least, of the number, he has been 
 leaving the impress of his gigantic intellect upon 
 every prominent measure which has conduced to our 
 country's advancement and prosperity. 
 
 But I forbear. The glorious sun has set. Un- 
 clouded to the last, its latent beams were of meri- 
 dian splendor, and the twilight of good influences 
 which it leaves will endure forever. 
 
 May it please your Honor I feel sure that the 
 Court will concur with the Bar, in believing that 
 these halls of justice, from which we are to miss 
 those eloquent tones, that impressive form, should, for 
 a time be left to meditative silence. The old, who 
 have met him in the arena of forensic warfare; the 
 middle-aged, who have lost in him a kind friend and 
 willing counsellor; the young, who have sat at his 
 feet, and drank in lessons of deep wisdom from his 
 lips; and even the young, struggling student, who, 
 while he fully realizes the picture of the poet, 
 
 "Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat 
 Res angusta domi," 
 
 yet revived his drooping spirits with the remembrance 
 of the perseverance and eventual success of the New 
 Hampshire farmer's boy. All, all unite to mourn our 
 loss. 
 
 I now move the Court, that this Court be adjourn-
 
 44 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 ed for such interval as the proper discharge of our 
 public duties may permit. 
 
 Judge PERKINS very briefly responded, remarking 
 that, as it was understood further proceedings relating 
 to Mr. Webster's death would take place in the Cir- 
 cuit Court to-morrow, he would add nothing to what 
 had been said; and, in accordance with the wishes of 
 the Bar, he would adjourn the Court to Thursday.
 
 MEETING AT FANEUIL HALL.
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 
 
 ON the evening of Monday, October 25, a meeting 
 of gentlemen was held at the Revere House, to con- 
 sult together as to the measures proper to be adopted 
 by the Citizens of Boston to show their respect to 
 the memory of Mr. Webster, and their sense of the 
 great loss sustained by them and the country at 
 large in his death. After some discussion, the follow- 
 ing call was drawn up, signed, and directed ta be 
 published in the papers of the next morning. 
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 
 
 All persons desirous to consult together and consider what me- 
 morial of the services of Daniel "Webster is due to themselves and 
 their country, are requested to assemble in Faneuil Hall to-morrow, 
 (Wednesday) October 27th, at noon, for that purpose. 
 
 Edward Everett, William Hayden, George Ticknor, George S. 
 Hillard, Joseph Tilden, Isaac Parker, Levi A. Dowley, T. B. 
 Curtis, Samuel Hooper, John T. Heard, Benjamin Seaver, Samuel 
 T. Dana. 
 
 Pursuant to the above call, the citizens of Boston 
 assembled in Fanueil Hall, on Wednesday, October 
 27, at the hour of noon. Nothing could be more 
 solemn and touching than the appearance of the Hall 
 and the countenances of those who filled it. The
 
 48 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 windows had been darkened, and there was no light 
 but that of the lamps. The citizens entered slowly 
 and in silence, and conducted, themselves as at the 
 funeral of a friend; standing uncovered during the 
 whole proceedings, and listening in profound stillness, 
 broken only by sounds of audible grief. Not a sin- 
 gle person ventured to disturb the sacred silence by 
 any expression of applause ; and even the " aye " of 
 response returned to the resolutions was given faintly, 
 and sounded like a moan. An occasion so solemn 
 rarely comes within any one's experience ; and the im- 
 pression of that meeting will never be effaced from 
 the hearts of those who were present. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by Hon. EDWARD 
 EVERETT. 
 
 Messrs. William Hayden, Samuel Hooper, and Tho- 
 mas Gray were appointed a Committee, to retire and 
 report a list of permanent officers. The Committee 
 subsequently reported, 
 
 For Presided His Honor Benjamin Seaver, Mayor 
 of the City. 
 
 Vice-Presidents Nathan Appleton, James Cheever, 
 Robert G. Shaw, Charles Torrey, Charles G. Greene, 
 Peter Harvey, Sidney Bartlett, Joseph Tilden, of 
 Ward Six. 
 
 Secretaries Samuel Kettell, J. Harris Smith, Wil- 
 liam W. Greenough, Samuel T. Dana. 
 
 The Report having been accepted, and the officers 
 having taken their seats on the platform, Mayor SEAVER 
 addressed the meeting as follows :
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 49 
 
 Fellow-citizens I can do nothing more in the 
 honorable position which, by your favor, has been 
 assigned me, than to guide the proceedings of the 
 meeting. The notice for the meeting explains every 
 thing. Will the Secretary please to read it ? 
 
 Mr. KETTELL accordingly read the call. 
 
 The MAYOR resumed his remarks, and said: 
 
 It is natural, on such a call as this, that the people 
 of Boston should crowd this consecrated hall to in- 
 dulge in the emotions of the heart, and mingle their 
 sympathies on the afflictive event which has fallen so 
 heavily upon our City, the State of Massachusetts, and 
 the whole Country. It is good for us to be here. In 
 contemplating the character of the illustrious man, 
 whose death we mourn, we shall be made better men, 
 better citizens, and be moved to the more faithful dis- 
 charge of duty. 
 
 Daniel Webster was a constant and faithful friend 
 of Boston, and of all her interests j they were dear 
 to his heart; his labors and his life afford the most 
 ample evidence of this. The people of our City, of 
 the State, and of New England, are under the strong- 
 est obligations to him, and it is their duty to acknow- 
 ledge them. There is not an individual here, be he 
 rich or poor, of whatever profession, whom he has not 
 directly or indirectly benefited. It is our duty to re- 
 member all this, and cherish a grateful sense of the 
 benefits he has conferred upon us. 
 
 It is an interesting fact, which must be present to 
 the minds of most of us to-day, that the last time he 
 addressed the people of Boston in this Hall was on 
 the 22d of May last, on the unanimous invitation of
 
 50 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 the City Government, without distinction of party. There 
 are some circumstances attending this invitation worthy 
 to be mentioned. It was my privilege to be a mem- 
 ber of the Committee who visited Marshfield, to pre- 
 sent the invitation. We found him suffering severely 
 from the accident which occurred only a few days 
 prior to our visit. The invitation was read to him, to 
 which he listened with marked attention; and when 
 he was told that it was given without distinction of party, 
 his eyes filled with tears, and he said, with emotion, 
 "I shall accept the invitation, and will prepare an 
 answer to be presented to the City Council." That 
 eloquent and touching letter you all remember; and 
 you also remember his equally eloquent and interest- 
 ing address. He was too feeble in health, to make it 
 prudent for him to leave his house ; but so strong and 
 ardent was his desire to meet his friends once more in 
 Faneuil Hall, that he was willing to risk all for the 
 gratification it afforded him. God be thanked that 
 he had this opportunity ! 
 
 But, fellow-citizens, we have not met here for the 
 purpose of entering into any extended consideration 
 of the character of our illustrious friend. This is not 
 the time to do this. 
 
 The Chair is now ready to receive any proposition 
 that may be made, to carry out the object of the 
 meeting. 
 
 JOHN T. HEARD, Esq., then came forward, and said: 
 
 Mr. President I ask permission to present resolu- 
 tions expressive of the feelings of this community, 
 occasioned by the death of an illustrious citizen. 
 Daniel Webster, the orator, statesman, and patriot, he
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 51 
 
 who counselled us in wisdom, is no longer amongst 
 us. That voice, which we have so often heard echo 
 through this hall, (Faneuil Hall,) in matchless elo- 
 quence, is silent; though its teachings of patriotism, 
 and its advocacy of constitutional liberty and the 
 rights of man, will speak forever. The whirlwind of 
 political excitement and passion is hushed ; and a 
 solemn utterance of heartfelt sorrow is whispered from 
 ear to ear. The resolutions will but faintly express 
 the emotions of grief that pervade the breasts of the 
 mourning multitude here assembled. I move, Mr. 
 President, the following resolutions : 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased Divine Providence, to remove by death 
 our late illustrious fellow citizen, Daniel Webster, we, the citi- 
 zens of Boston, in Faneuil Hall assembled, desirous of giving 
 utterance to those feelings of attachment and veneration which we 
 cherish for his memory, unanimously adopt the following resolu- 
 tions : 
 
 Resolved, That we are deeply sensible to the loss which has 
 been sustained, not only by this community, but the State of 
 Massachusetts and the whole Country, in the decease of a man, 
 whose distinguished talents, learning, eloquence, and force of cha- 
 racter, formed its brightest ornament ; who, coming among us in 
 early manhood, with a brilliant reputation from a sister State, 
 rose by no slow ascent, till by the decease of his most eminent 
 compeers, he stood, by all confession, the greatest of her great 
 men ; that, whether we contemplate in him the profoundly learned 
 jurist, the advocate endowed with all the gifts of persuasion ; the 
 perfect master of the English tongue, in all the accomplishments 
 of a scholar, a speaker, and a writer; the great interpreter and 
 defender of the Constitution, whose luminous expositions of its 
 revered text are replete with all the wisdom of the framers, and, 
 who in moments of peril, rescued and sustained what they esta- 
 blished ; the model American Statesman, to whom the entire range 
 of our political and Constitutional history, our diplomatic relations
 
 52 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 and foreign affairs, our great territorial, commercial, and indus- 
 trial interests at home and abroad, were as familiar as household 
 words ; the enlightened patriot, to whom all parts of our common 
 country, from North to South, and from ocean to ocean, were 
 alike dear ; who ever cherished with his whole heart that Union 
 which makes us one people, and to the conservation of which 
 his whole life was devoted ; the philosopher and sage, whose vol- 
 umes will furnish lessons of instruction, warning, and encourage- 
 ment, to the latest posterity ; the friend of constitutional freedom 
 and liberty, protected by law, by whose burning eloquence, lend- 
 ing force to public opinion throughout the world, arbitrary 
 power has been rebuked in its strong-holds, and nations strug- 
 gling for their rights, have been cheered and strengthened ; that, 
 in fine, in whatever light we contemplate the great man whom 
 we deplore, we want words to do full justice to our admiration 
 of his mighty genius, our gratitude for his invaluable services, 
 and our abiding sorrow over his grave. 
 
 Resolved, While in common with our fellow-citizens throughout 
 the country, we lament the patriot and statesman, whose public 
 labors and services have been of the utmost value to the country, 
 that we, the inhabitants of Boston and of the Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts, the city and State of his adoption, mourn for the 
 loss of a fellow-citizen, a neighbor, a companion, a friend, whose 
 great heart was the dwelling of all the generous feelings; who 
 delighted to unbend from the cares of state, and partake in the 
 home-bred relaxations of private life ; who, as a scientific and in- 
 telligent farmer, afforded to our substantial yeomanry a cheering 
 example of successful practical husbandry ; whose presence was 
 the light and joy of every friendly circle; whose hospitable roof 
 and genial fireside were the abode of all the domestic charities 
 and kindly virtues of a true New England home ; and who, hav- 
 ing evinced through life, a reverence for the Bible and the ordi- 
 nances of religion, found support in the last trying hour, in the 
 hopes and promises of the Gospel. 
 
 And, whereas, we are desirous of testifying our respect for the 
 memory of the departed, by some expression of our gratitude and 
 veneration, which shall endure to other times, and convey to our 
 children's children a lively impression of the feelings, which in- 
 fluence us. Be it further
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 53 
 
 Resolved, That an executive committee of one hundred persons 
 be appointed by the Chair, to be selected in such manner as to 
 represent the citizens of every pursuit, calling, and party, whose 
 duty it shall be to take such measures as may be deemed expe- 
 dient to provide, by the cooperation of the whole community, a 
 permanent memorial of our illustrious and lamented fellow-citizen. 
 
 Resolved, That an attested copy of the foregoing resolutions be 
 transmitted by the officers of this meeting, together with a report 
 of its proceedings, to the bereaved family of Mr. Webster, with 
 the assurance of the heartfelt and respectful sympathy of the citi- 
 zens of Boston in their irreparable loss. 
 
 Hon. GEORGE S. HILLARD moved the adoption of 
 the resolutions, and said: 
 
 A great man has passed away from earth. A far- 
 shining light is extinguished, and a strong column 
 has fallen. We, who were guided by that light, who 
 leaned upon that column, are left to walk by fainter 
 rays, to rest upon feebler supports. I am not here to 
 pronounce an eulogy upon Daniel Webster, nor you to 
 hear one. A fresh grief is impatient of details. We 
 are here to mourn, and not to praise him. You need 
 not that I should unfold to you the treasures of his 
 greatness. You need not that I should set forth to 
 you his claims as a jurist, an orator, a statesman, and 
 a patriot. You know them all too well. To suppose 
 you ignorant of them, is to suppose you ignorant of 
 the history of your country, where they are written 
 in lines bright as the belt of Orion. 
 
 It is fitting for us to be here assembled, with these 
 countenances of sadness. In the general bereavement, 
 ours is a particular loss, for he belonged to us. It is 
 now thirty years since he was sent by the citizens of 
 Boston to take part in the councils of the nation,
 
 54 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 and since that time he has been the foremost man in 
 this community. His eloquence has kindled, his wis- 
 dom has guided, his experience has taught us. All 
 of us have turned, again and again, to look at his 
 commanding presence, which, however often it might 
 be seen, seemed an ever new expression of intellect- 
 ual power and weight of character. Two generations 
 of children have pointed him out to one another, as 
 he moved along our streets. None of us, who have 
 seen him, can ever have any other ideal image of 
 greatness than that which his face and form have left 
 upon our memories. He was our pride and our boast, 
 whom we delighted to show to the stranger as the 
 grandest growth of our soil and our institutions. 
 " When the ear heard him, then it blessed him ; and 
 when the eye saw him, it gave witness to him." 
 
 But the influence which moved from here has gone 
 forth to the ends of the earth. His voice of wisdom 
 and power, which was at home among us, has pene- 
 trated wherever there was an oppressor to be re- 
 buked, or a victim to be cheered. Everywhere it has 
 brought hope to the struggling and the down-trodden, 
 and confusion to the wrongdoer. 
 
 Not from one land alone, not in one tongue alone, 
 will his death be mourned. From the four corners 
 of the globe, tributes and testimony will be gathered 
 up. The shepherd, who tends his flock beneath the 
 clear skies of Greece; the cavalier, that spurs over 
 the plains of South America ; the Hungarian, pining 
 in exile, or languishing in prison, will all, when they 
 hear of his death, feel a common grief at a common 
 loss. Liberty will mourn a champion, humanity a 
 friend.
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 55 
 
 There is a strong propriety in our meeting here, 
 to do honor to the memory of this great man. With 
 this spot his image is indissolubly associated. Here 
 we have been accustomed to come together, to hang 
 upon his words, to be guided by his counsels, and 
 sustained by his strength. Here you have, again and 
 again, looked upon his majestic form, and that noble, 
 intellectual countenance, to which no artist has yet 
 done full justice. Here you have seen him stretch 
 forth that strong right hand of his, as if he were 
 hollowing out for the mountain streams, the channels 
 in which they should flow. Here you have heard his 
 burning and powerful eloquence, the lightning of 
 passion running along the iron links of argument. 
 Have seen, do I say ? Have heard ? Surely you see 
 and hear him now. Evoked by the potent genius of 
 the place, the departed hours and the departed man 
 come back again. We need not that pictured can- 
 vas to recall his mighty presence. In the mind's 
 e y e ? y u see nce more that heroic shape, that glow- 
 ing and inspired countenance. In the mind's ear, you 
 hear again that deeply-freighted voice, which has so 
 often made the hearts of thousands swell and throb 
 like one. The shadow of him we have lost, is more 
 than the living forms of all who are left. 
 
 Great men are among the best gifts which God 
 bestows upon a people. In this respect, He has not 
 hidden his face from us. Great men have been among 
 us, by whom we have been led and formed and up- 
 held; men, wise in counsel, brave in action, earnest 
 in patriotic purpose, and faithful to duty. Washing- 
 ton, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Marshall, are illustrious
 
 56 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 names. History has none greater or "better to show. 
 And now another, a commensurate spirit, has 
 been summoned away from the cares and trials of 
 life, to take his place by their side. But we, that 
 stand looking with weeping eyes into his open grave, 
 should not forget to thank God for what we have 
 had, for his threescore and ten years of rich and 
 crowded life, for all that he has done for liberty and 
 for law, for the confidence which his presence inspir- 
 ed, for the wisdom that saw the right, and the firm- 
 ness that maintained it, for his great powers of 
 thought and speech, for the precious legacy of his 
 writings. Let us be thankful that such hands have 
 shaped the moulds in which the opinions of so many 
 have been cast. 
 
 It is now almost half a century since the nation 
 was called, upon to mourn the sudden and appalling 
 death of the man who, by the greatness of his genius, 
 and the greatness of his services, suggests the most 
 obvious parallel to him who has just been taken from 
 us. He died in the prime of his life, when his coun- 
 try had reason to expect many more years of valu- 
 able labor and influence. He died by what, if actions 
 derive their character from the motives that prompt 
 them, may be called a felon stroke and an assassin's 
 hand. When the news of Hamilton's death smote 
 upon the land, the general sorrow was mixed up with 
 a burning sense of wrong, with a stupefying shock 
 of surprise, and the wreck of high expectations sud- 
 denly dashed in pieces. Ours is a serener grief, for 
 ours is a more natural, a more endurable bereave- 
 ment. Daniel Webster had reached that period of
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 57 
 
 life, when it becomes a man to set his house in or- 
 der, and wait his final summons. As year after year 
 passed by, and found us still leaning on his wisdom 
 and experience, which the growth of the country and 
 its widening relations made more and more import- 
 ant, when dates and the inexorable hours compelled 
 us to admit that he was getting to be an old man, 
 we could not help sometimes asking ourselves, to 
 whom should we turn when this support should have 
 been withdrawn? For some time past, though we 
 have struggled against the conviction, we have been 
 forced to acknowledge that time and toil were mak- 
 ing inroads upon his vigorous frame. He has died 
 full of years and full of honor, with no duty unper- 
 formed, and no trust undischarged. He has done his 
 work and earned his crown. And as we have such 
 cause for gratitude for his long and great life, so let 
 us also be thankful for the mercy which so ordered 
 its close ; that he died by no lingering and painful 
 decay, making him dead while yet living ; that he 
 died with all his glorious faculties unimpaired; and 
 that this great orb, which had so long guided and 
 cheered us with its light, sunk below the horizon, 
 undimmed by a single cloud. 
 
 And there are other soothing and consoling reflec- 
 tions that temper this stroke. No man knoweth the 
 place of his sepulchre. In the East, there is a touch- 
 ing benediction, May you die among your kindred. 
 This blessing was given unto him. He died as the 
 heart hopes to die. He died in his own home, amid 
 those scenes of natural beauty endeared to him by 
 the joys and sorrows of many eventful years, with
 
 58 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 the faces of family, kindred, and friends, around his 
 bed, religion pillowing his head, in that mellow and 
 pensive season of the year so dear to his thoughtful 
 and tender spirit, with his own trees waving before 
 his dying eyes, and that voice of the sea, which he 
 loved so well, soothing his dying ear: 
 
 For him there is no longer any future, 
 
 His life is bright; bright without spot it was, 
 
 And cannot cease to be. No ominous hour 
 
 Knocks at his door with tidings of mishap. 
 
 Far off is he, above desire and fear ; 
 
 No more submitted to the chance and change 
 
 Of the unsteady planets. Oh 'tis well 
 
 With him ! But who knows what the coming hour, 
 
 Veiled in thick darkness, brings for us. 
 
 Yes, my friends, for us. These words are not inap- 
 propriate to the hour and the place. We are a great, 
 a powerful, a prosperous people ; but there are dan- 
 gers in our path, and we know not what is hidden 
 in the darkness of the coming hours. When we shall 
 have discharged the last sad duty to this great states- 
 man and patriot, and laid that illustrious head in the 
 grave, who can fail to offer up a fervent supplication, 
 that a double portion of his spirit may be upon us ! 
 May his influence help to save us from the evils of 
 selfish ambition, of grasping injustice, of headlong 
 fanaticism. May he continue to infuse into our coun- 
 cils the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of justice, and the 
 spirit of peace. 
 
 What living man is so eloquent as death ! What 
 living lips can speak like those on which the grave 
 has set its seal of silence! From the book of Job
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 59 
 
 to the newspaper of to-day, the same teachings have 
 been drawn from the dread presence, which no cus- 
 tom can make familiar. The cold and rigid frame, 
 the mute tongue, the dim eye, the powerless hand, 
 have ever given occasion to poets and moralists to 
 discourse on the vanity of human wishes and the sha- 
 dowy nature of human hopes. But the death of the 
 great and good has other lessons than these. While 
 it teaches impressively, that that which is mortal must 
 die ; it teaches also, not less impressively, that that 
 which is immortal, shall not taste of death. "I still 
 live," were among the last words of Webster. They 
 are yet true. His works, his words, his examples, his 
 life, still live. A death like his, so simply, so serene- 
 ly great, brightened by hope and faith and love, 
 dignified with the perfect possession of such glorious 
 powers, is not so much the close of one day as the 
 dawn of another ; not so much the putting off of mor- 
 tality, as the putting on of immortality. When we 
 read of such an euthanasia, we seem to hear a voice 
 from the sky, which says, "Lift up that dejected 
 brow, and the hands which are cast down. The death 
 which you lament is but a great event in the life of 
 the soul. It is a change, and not a dissolution. It 
 is the gate to a new sphere, in which the mind, en- 
 riched with larger powers, shall enter upon broader 
 fields of action and duty, where nobler struggles shall 
 task the strength, and more precious crowns reward 
 the victory ; where the hopes and the dreams of earth 
 shall be turned to sight, and the broken circles of 
 life be rounded to the perfect orb."
 
 60 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Hon. EDWARD EVERETT then spoke as follows : 
 Mr. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens I never rose to 
 address an assembly when I was so little fit, body 
 or mind, to perform the duty ; and I never felt so 
 keenly how inadequate are words to express such an 
 emotion as manifestly pervades this meeting, in com- 
 mon with the whole country. There is but one voice 
 that ever fell upon my ear which could do justice to 
 such an occasion. That voice, alas ! we shall hear no 
 more forever. No more at the bar will it unfold the 
 deepest mysteries of the law ; no more will it speak 
 conviction to admiring Senates ; no more in this hall, 
 the chosen theatre of his intellectual dominion, will it 
 lift the soul as with the swell of the pealing organ, 
 or stir the blood with the tones of a clarion, in the 
 inmost chambers of the heart, 
 
 We are assembled, fellow-citizens, to pour out the 
 fulness of our feelings ; not in the vain attempt to 
 do honor to the great man who is taken from us ; 
 most assuredly not with the presumptuous hope on my 
 part to magnify his name and his praise. They are 
 spread throughout the Union. From East to West, 
 and from North to South, (which he knew, as he told 
 you, only that he might embrace them in the arms of 
 a loving patriotism,) a voice of lamentation has al- 
 ready gone forth, such as has not echoed through the 
 land since the death of him who was first in war, 
 first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country- 
 men. 
 
 You have listened, fellow-citizens, to the resolutions 
 which have been submitted to you by Col. Heard. I 
 thank him for offering them. It does honor to his
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 61 
 
 heart, and to those with whom he acts in politics, 
 and whom I have no doubt he well represents, that 
 he has stepped forward so liberally on this occasion. 
 The resolutions are emphatic, sir, but I feel that they 
 do not say too much. No one will think they over- 
 state the magnitude of our loss. Who that is capa- 
 ble of appreciating a character like that of Daniel 
 Webster ; who of us, fellow-citizens, that has known 
 him that has witnessed the masterly skill with 
 which he would pour the full effulgence of his mind 
 on some contested legal and constitutional principle, 
 till what seemed hard and obscure became as plain 
 as day ; who that has seen him, in all the glory of 
 intellectual ascendency, 
 
 Ride on the -whirlwind and direct the storm 
 
 of parliamentary conflict ; who that has drank of the 
 pure fountains of wisdom and thought in the volumes 
 of his writings ; who alas, sir, that has seen him 
 
 in his happier hour 
 Of social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power, 
 
 that has come within the benignant fascination of his 
 smile, has felt the pressure of his hand, and tasted 
 the sweets of his fireside eloquence, will think that 
 the resolutions say too much ? 
 
 No, fellow-citizens, we come together not to do 
 honor to him, but to do justice to ourselves. We 
 obey an impulse from within. Such a feeling can- 
 not be pent up in solitude. We must meet, neigh- 
 bor with neighbor, citizen with citizen, man with man, 
 to sympathize with each other. If we did not, mute 
 Nature would rebuke us. The granite hills of New
 
 62 WEBSTEB MEMORIAL. 
 
 Hampshire, within whose shadow he drew his first 
 breath, would cry shame ; Plymouth Rock, which all 
 but moved at his approach; the slumbering echoes 
 of this hall, which rung so grandly with his voice ; 
 that " silent but majestic orator," which rose in no 
 mean degree at his command on Bunker Hill all, 
 all would cry out at our degeneracy and ingratitude. 
 Mr. Chairman, I do not stand here to pro- 
 nounce the eulogy of Mr. Webster ; it is not neces- 
 sary. Eulogy has already performed her first offices 
 to his memory. As the mournful tidings have flashed 
 through the country, the highest officers of Nation 
 and State, the most dignified official bodies, the most 
 prominent individuals, without distinction of party, 
 the press of the country, the great voice of the land, 
 all have spoken, and with one accord of opinion and 
 feeling ; and an unanimity that does honor at once 
 to the object of this touching attestation, and to those 
 who make it. The record of his life, from the hum- 
 ble roof beneath which he was born, (with no inherit- 
 ance but poverty and an honored name,) up through 
 the arduous paths of manhood, which he trod with 
 lion heart and giant steps, till they conducted him 
 to the helm of State this stirring narrative, not 
 unfamiliar before, has, with melancholy promptitude, 
 within the last three days, been again sent abroad 
 through the length and breadth of the land. It has 
 spread from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Strug- 
 gling poverty has been cheered afresh ; honest am- 
 bition has been kindled ; patriotic resolve has been 
 invigorated ; while all have mourned. The poor boy 
 at the village school has taken comfort as he has
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 63 
 
 read that the time was when Daniel Webster, whose 
 father told him he should go to college if he had to 
 sell every acre of his farm to pay the expense, laid 
 his head on the shoulder of that fond and discerning 
 parent, and wept the thanks he could not speak. The 
 pale student, who ekes out his scanty support by 
 extra toil, has gathered comfort when reminded that 
 the first Jurist, Statesman, and Orator of the time 
 earned with his weary fingers by the midnight lamp 
 the means of securing the same advantages of educa- 
 tion to a beloved brother. Every true-hearted citizen 
 throughout the Union has felt an honest pride, as he 
 reperuses the narrative, in reflecting that he lives be- 
 neath a Constitution and a Government under which 
 such a man has been formed and trained, and that 
 he himself is compatriot with him. He does more, 
 sir ; he reflects with gratitude that in consequence of 
 what that man has done, and written, and said in 
 the result of his efforts to strengthen the pillars of 
 the Union a safer inheritance of civil liberty, a 
 stronger assurance that these blessings will endure, 
 will descend to his children. 
 
 I know, Mr. Mayor, how presumptuous it would be 
 to dwell on any personal causes of grief, in the pre- 
 sence of this august sorrow, which spreads its dark 
 wings over the land. You will not, however, be of- 
 fended if, by way of apology for putting myself for- 
 ward on this occasion, I say that my relations with 
 Mr. Webster run further back than those of almost 
 any one in this community. They began the first 
 year he came to live in Boston. When I was but 
 ten or eleven years old, I attended a little private
 
 64 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 school in Short Street, (as it was then called, it is 
 now the continuation of Kingston Street,) kept by 
 the late Hon. Ezekiel Webster, the elder brother, to 
 whom I have alluded, and a brother worthy of his 
 kindred. Owing to illness, or some other cause of 
 absence on his part, the school was kept for a short 
 time by Daniel Webster, then a student of law in Mr. 
 Gore's office ; and on this occasion, forty-seven or eight 
 years ago, and I a child of ten, our acquaintance, since 
 then never interrupted, began. 
 
 When I entered public life, it was with his encou- 
 ragement. In 1838 I acted, fellow-citizens, as your 
 organ in the great ovation which you gave him in 
 this hall. When he came to the Department of State, 
 in 1841, it was on his recommendation that I, 
 living in the utmost privacy beyond the Alps, was 
 appointed to a very high office abroad ; and, in the 
 course of the last year, he gave me the highest proof 
 of his confidence, in intrusting to me the care of con- 
 ducting his works through the press. May I venture, 
 Sir, to add, that in the last letter but one which I had 
 the happiness to receive from him, alluding, with a 
 kind of sad presentiment, which I could not then 
 fully appreciate, but which now unmans me, to these 
 kindly relations of half a century, he adds, " We 
 now and then see stretching across the heavens a 
 clear, blue, cerulean sky, without cloud, or mist, or 
 haze. And such appears to me our acquaintance, from 
 the time when I heard you for a week recite your 
 lessons in the little school-house in Short Street to 
 the date hereof," 21st July, 1852. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I do not dwell upon the traits of
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 65 
 
 Mr. Webster's public character, however tempting the 
 theme. Its bright developments, in a long life of ser- 
 vice, are before the world; they are wrought into the 
 annals of the country. Whoever, in after times, shall 
 write the history of the United States for the last 
 forty years, will write the life of Daniel Webster ; 
 and whoever writes the life of Daniel Webster as it 
 ought to be written, will write the history of the 
 Union from the time he took a leading part in its 
 concerns. I prefer to allude to those private traits 
 which show the MAN, the kindness of his heart, the 
 generosity of his spirit, his freedom from all the bit- 
 terness of party, the unaffected gentleness of his na- 
 ture. In preparing the new edition of his works, he 
 thought proper to leave almost every thing to my dis- 
 cretion, as far as matters of taste are concerned. One 
 thing only he enjoined upon me, with an earnestness 
 approaching to a command. "My friend," said he, "I 
 wish to perpetuate no feuds. I have lived a life of 
 strenuous political warfare. I have sometimes, though 
 rarely, and that in self-defence, been led to speak of 
 others with severity; I beg you, where you can do it 
 without wholly changing the character of the speech, 
 and thus doing essential injustice to me, to obliterate 
 every trace of personality of this kind. I should 
 prefer not to leave a word that would give unneces- 
 sary pain to any honest man, however opposed to 
 me." 
 
 But I need not tell you, fellow-citizens, that there 
 is no one of our distinguished public men whose 
 speeches contain less occasion for such an injunction. 
 Mr. Webster habitually rejected the use of the poi-
 
 66 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 soned weapons of personal invective or party odium. 
 No one could more studiously abstain from all at- 
 tempts to make a political opponent personally hate- 
 ful. If the character of our Congressional discussions 
 has of late years somewhat declined in dignity, no 
 portion of the blame lies at his door. With Mr. Cal- 
 houn, who for a considerable portion of the time was 
 his chief antagonist, and with whom he was brought 
 into most direct collision, he maintained friendly 
 personal relations. He did full justice to his talents 
 and character. You remember the feeling with which 
 he spoke of him at the time of his decease. Mr. Cal- 
 houn, in his turn, entertained a just estimate of his 
 great opponent's worth. He said, toward the close of 
 his life, that of all the leading men of the day, " there 
 was not one whose political course had been more 
 strongly marked by a strict regard to truth and honor 
 than Mr. Webster's." 
 
 One of the resolutions speaks of a permanent me- 
 morial to Mr. Webster. I do not know what is con- 
 templated, but I trust that such a memorial there will 
 be. I trust that marble and brass, in the hands of 
 the most skilful artists our country has produced, will 
 be put in requisition to reproduce to us, and no- 
 where so appropriately as in this hall, the linea- 
 ments of that noble form and beaming countenance, 
 on which we have so often gazed with delight. But, 
 after all, fellow-citizens, the noblest monument must 
 be found in his works. There he will live and speak 
 to us and our children, when brass and marble have 
 crumbled into dust. As a repository of political truth 
 and practical wisdom, applied to the affairs of govern-
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 67 
 
 nient, I know not where we shall find their equal. 
 The works of Burke naturally suggest themselves to 
 the mind, as the only writings in our language that 
 can sustain the comparison. Certainly no composi- 
 tions in the English tongue can take precedence of 
 those of Burke, in depth of thought, reach of fore- 
 east> or magnificence of style. I think, however, it 
 may be said without partiality, either national or 
 personal, that while the reader is cloyed, at last, with 
 the gorgeous finish of Burke's diction, there is a se- 
 vere simplicity and a significant plainness in Web- 
 ster's writing, that never tires. It is precisely this 
 which characterizes the statesman, in distinction from 
 the political philosopher. In political disquisition, ela- 
 borated in the closet, the palm must, perhaps, be 
 awarded to Burke over all others, ancient or modern. 
 But in the actual conflicts of the Senate, man against 
 man, and opinion against opinion ; in the noble war 
 of debate, where measures are to be sustained and 
 opposed, on which the welfare of the country and the 
 peace of the world depend, where often the line of 
 intellectual battle is changed in a moment ; no time 
 to reflect, no leisure to cull words, or gather up il- 
 lustrations, but all to be decided by a vote, although 
 the reputation of a life may be at stake, all this 
 is a very different matter, and here Mr. Webster was 
 immeasurably the superior. Accordingly, we find, his- 
 torically, (incredible as it sounds, and what I am ready 
 to say I will not believe, though it is unquestionably 
 true,) that these inimitable orations of Burke, which 
 one cannot read without a thrill of admiration to his fin- 
 gers' ends, actually emptied the benches of parliament.
 
 68 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Ah, gentlemen, it was very different with our great 
 parliamentary orator. He not only chained to their 
 seats willing, or, if there were such a thing, unwil- 
 ling Senators, but the largest hall was too small for 
 his audience. On the memorable 7th of March, 1850, 
 when he was expected to speak upon the great ques- 
 tions then pending before the country, not only was 
 the Senate Chamber thronged to its utmost capacity 
 at an early hour, but all the passages to it, the Ro- 
 tundo of the Capitol, and even the avenues of the 
 city, were alive with the crowds who were desirous 
 of gaining admittance. Another Senator, not a poli- 
 tical friend, was entitled to the floor. With equal 
 good taste and good feeling, he stated that " he was 
 aware that the great multitude had not come toge- 
 ther to hear him ; and he was pleased to yield the 
 floor to the only man, as he believed, who could draw 
 together such an assembly." This sentiment, the 
 effusion of parliamentary courtesy, will, perhaps, be 
 found no inadequate expression of what will finally 
 be the judgment of posterity. 
 
 Among the many memorable words which fell from 
 the lips of our friend just before they were closed 
 forever, the most remarkable are those which my 
 friend Hillard has just quoted, "I STILL LIVE." They 
 attest the serene composure of his mind, the Chris- 
 tian heroism, with which he was able to turn his con- 
 sciousness in upon itself, and explore, step by step, 
 the dark passage, (dark to us, but to him we trust 
 already lighted from above,) which connects this world 
 with the world to come. But I know not, Mr. Chair- 
 man, what words could have been better chosen to
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 69 
 
 express his relation to the world he was leaving: "I 
 still live. This poor dust is just returning to the dust 
 from which it was taken; but I feel that I live* in 
 the affections of the people to whose service I have 
 consecrated my days. I still live. The icy hand of 
 death is already laid on my heart, but I shall still 
 live in those words of faithful counsel which I have 
 uttered to my fellow-citizens, and which I now leave 
 them as the last bequest of a dying friend." 
 
 Mr. Chairman, in the long and honored career of 
 our lamented friend there are efforts and triumphs 
 which will hereafter fill one of the brightest pages 
 in our history. But I greatly err if the closing 
 scene the height of the religious sublime does 
 not, in the judgment of other days, far transcend in 
 interest the brightest exploits of public life. Within 
 that darkened chamber at Marshfield, was witnessed 
 a scene of which we shall not readily find the paral- 
 lel. The serenity with which he stood in the pre- 
 sence of the King of Terrors, without trepidation 
 or flutter, for hours and days of expectation ; the 
 thoughtfulness for the public business, when the 
 sands were so nearly run out ; the hospitable care 
 for the reception of the friends who came to Marsh- 
 field ; that affectionate and solemn leave separately 
 taken, name by name, of wife, and children, and kin- 
 dred, and friends, and family, down to the humblest 
 members of the household; the designation of the 
 coming day, then near at hand, when "all that was 
 mortal of Daniel Webster would cease to exist;" the 
 dimly-recollected strains of the funereal poetry of Gray, 
 the last faint flash of the soaring intellect; the feebly
 
 70 WEBSTEK MEMORIAL. 
 
 murmured words of Holy Writ repeated from the lips 
 of the good physician, who, when all the resources of 
 human art had been exhausted, had a drop of spirit- 
 ual balm for the parting soul ; the clasped hands ; 
 the dying prayer. Oh! iny fellow-citizens, that is a 
 consummation over which tears of pious sympathy 
 will be shed, ages after the glories of the Forum and 
 the Senate are forgotten. 
 
 His sufferings ended with the day, 
 
 Yet lived he at its close ; 
 And breathed the long, long night away, 
 
 In statue-like repose. 
 
 But ere the sun, in all his state, 
 
 Illumed the eastern skies, 
 He passed through glory's morning gate, 
 
 And walked in Paradise. 
 
 The resolutions were then adopted. 
 The Hon. WILLIAM APPLETON submitted the follow- 
 ing resolve, which was likewise adopted : 
 
 JKesolved, That as a token of respect for the memory of Mr. 
 Webster, this meeting recommend that the banks, insurance offices, 
 and other places of business be closed on Friday next. 
 
 The MAYOR announced the Committee of one hun- 
 dred, as follows : 
 
 Thos. H. Perkins John H. Pearson Benjamin Luring 
 
 Geo. Ticknor Samuel Hooper Nathan Hale 
 
 Edward Everett John P. Ober Saml. A. Eliot 
 
 Nathan Appleton Vernon Brown William Appleton 
 
 Abbott Lawrence J. Thos. Stevenson William Amory 
 
 Benjamin Seaver C. P. Curtis Chas. H. Mills 
 
 Amos Lawrence Chas. J. Hendee A. Hemmenway 
 
 Francis C. Gray James K. Mills Francis Skinner 
 
 Samuel Lawrence Francis C. Lowell Chas. L. Woodbury
 
 MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 
 
 71 
 
 Robert G. Shaw 
 John T. Heard 
 Franklin Haven 
 Chas. G. Greene 
 Jno. C. Warren 
 Jno. E. Thayer 
 Thos. W. Ward 
 Jno. A. Lowell 
 Saral. D. Bradford 
 Robert B. Storer 
 Peter Harvey 
 Enoch Train 
 John M. Forbes 
 Levi A. Dowley 
 Moses Williams 
 Albert Fearing 
 L. W. Tappan 
 Henry K. Horton 
 Samuel T. Dana 
 W. W. Greenough 
 Daniel Safford 
 Jno. P. Thorndike 
 Wra. Hayden 
 Geo. T. Curtis 
 Jacob Sleeper 
 
 E. F. Raymond 
 W. H. Lamed 
 M. C. Barstow 
 S. C. Allen 
 Julius A. Palmer 
 Jno. C. Tucker 
 James Cheever 
 Geo. B. Upton 
 Geo. R. Sampson 
 William Sturgis 
 Ozias Goodwin 
 Paran Stevens 
 H. J. Gardner 
 C. C. Felton 
 Geo. T. Lyman 
 H. M. Holbrook 
 Wm. T. Eustis. 
 Thos. T. Whittemore 
 William Almy 
 Joseph Packard 
 N. A. Thompson 
 Chas. Larkin 
 Wm. Thomas 
 John Jeffries 
 Amos A. Lawrence 
 
 Samuel Henshaw 
 Benjamin F. Hallett 
 Samuel Kettell 
 C. R. Ransom 
 Geo. Peabody 
 Thomas B. Wales 
 Samuel Whitwell 
 P. W. Chandler 
 John W. Trull 
 James Whiting 
 Eliphalet Jones 
 Silas Pearce 
 Geo. W. Crockett 
 Andrew Carney 
 II. H. Hunnewell 
 James Lawrence 
 J. W. James 
 Jonas Chickering 
 Peter Dunbar 
 Arthur Pickering 
 Henry Crocker 
 Benjamin Smith 
 Ezra Forristall 
 Thomas B. Curtis 
 
 The meeting, after approving of this list of names, 
 adjourned.
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 10
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR 
 THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 THE members of the Bar met in the Law Library, 
 Monday morning, October 25. They were called to 
 order by the Hon. George Lunt, District Attorney of 
 the United States, and Hon. Charles G. Loring was 
 appointed Chairman, and Francis 0. Watts, Esq., Se- 
 cretary. Hon. Rufus Choate, Sydney Bartlett, Esq., 
 Hon. George S. Hillard, Richard H. Dana, Jr., and 
 George T. Curtis, Esquires, were appointed to report 
 resolutions at a future meeting. Tuesday morning, 
 at the adjourned meeting, Hon. Simon Greenleaf, John 
 P. Putnam, and Tolman Willey, Esquires, were added 
 to the committee. Thursday, October 28th, the Bar 
 again met in the Supreme Court Room, and the reso- 
 lutions given below were reported and adopted, when 
 the meeting adjourned to the Circuit Court then in 
 session CURTIS and SPRAGUE, Justices, on the bench. 
 The room was crowded to overflowing. The Hon. 
 GEORGE LUNT announced to the Court the death of 
 Mr. Webster, as follows: 
 
 May it please your Honors I have the sad duty to 
 announce, as Attorney of the United States for this
 
 76 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 district, the removal of Daniel Webster, the great 
 leader and exemplar of this Bar, by death. The per- 
 formance of the mournful duty thus devolved upon 
 me, results from my official position, and is in accord- 
 ance with the usages of the Bar. But I should do 
 dishonor to my own feelings, did I not at the same 
 time signify that my heart beats in unison with all 
 other hearts, under the pressure of so great a cala- 
 mity. And, while I discharge this office, I only feel 
 how inadequate must be every tribute of respect to 
 the memory of that illustrious citizen, whose public 
 life for so long a period has constituted one of the 
 chief elements of the pride and glory of his country. 
 But, feeling only too sensibly, that what belongs to 
 me in this public expression of sorrow arises only 
 from the accident of my position, I am equally sen- 
 sible that it does not become me to assume the place 
 of his eulogist, whose fame is indeed beyond all 
 eulogy. 
 
 It is impossible not to be conscious that a glory 
 has departed which blazes rarely in the successive 
 centuries of time. And as in the disruption of pri- 
 vate ties, we turn in vain to those who remain for 
 relief, so in the departure of this great personage, 
 singularly unequalled and unapproached by all others 
 of his time, we feel that a vast and "aching void" 
 will long be left unsatisfied in the beating heart of a 
 nation. 
 
 But it is a source of satisfaction to me that there 
 are present those members of this Bar who for many 
 years have enjoyed the more intimate communion of 
 this majestic spirit. They have been animated and
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 77 
 
 elevated, and inspired by the sublime intellect of him 
 whose record has long been written amongst 
 
 The few, the immortal names, 
 Which were not born to die. 
 
 To them I would respectfully leave what better be- 
 comes those who have nearer rights and higher capa- 
 cities for so great a theme. 
 
 With the permission of your Honors, I will ask 
 that, at the close of these proceedings, this Circuit 
 Court of the United States do adjourn, and that the 
 ceremonial of this day be entered upon its records. 
 
 The Hon. CHARLES G. LORING then addressed the 
 court. 
 
 May it please the Court I stand before you as 
 the humble organ of this Bar, instructed to present 
 for entry on your records resolutions passed at a re- 
 cent meeting, expressive of our emotions upon the 
 death of our illustrious leader, whose departure fills 
 not only our, but a nation's heart with grief. 
 
 The subject, while of profoundest interest, is too 
 grand for oratory. The announcement that Daniel 
 Webster is dead fills the souls of all here with recol- 
 lections, thoughts, and emotions, which no other words 
 could excite. The simple statement of the event is 
 the most appropriate eloquence. It is in justice only 
 to ourselves, not to him, that our feelings seek utter- 
 ance and relief in words. 
 
 His name and character, indeed, belong to the 
 whole people of the United States of America, whom 
 he has so long, so faithfully, and so gloriously served,
 
 78 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 and not to this, or any other Bar or State. There is 
 not an intelligent citizen of this broad Republic, from 
 the Canadas to the Rio Grande, or from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific, or who sails beneath its flag in the 
 remotest sea, to whom knowledge of this event will 
 not come as sad tidings of public calamity, as 
 of a tower of national strength laid low, as of 
 a star stricken from the firmament of his country's 
 glory. 
 
 The colossal grandeur of his intellect, the vast num- 
 ber and magnitude of his services as a patriotic states- 
 man, and his rank as one of the most profound reason- 
 ers and sublime orators which have appeared in any 
 age or nation; and the influences he has thus exer- 
 cised, and for ages to come must continue to exert 
 upon the mind, institutions, and destinies of the Ameri- 
 can people, are treasures of national wealth, and 
 themes for other occasions. 
 
 But with these are inseparably connected his labors 
 as a jurist, which it becomes us, more particularly, to 
 commemorate on this occasion; and which, although 
 less generally conspicuous, even to his contemporaries, 
 and becoming less so as advancing time and expe- 
 rience consecrate into axioms the great principles 
 which he was primarily and chiefly instrumental in 
 establishing, are of no less magnitude and importance, 
 as having led to those judicial constructions of the 
 Constitution which have confirmed it in the confidence 
 and affections of the people as a truly national insti- 
 tution. These services, we may, perhaps, be the more 
 able to appreciate as presenting unequalled profes- 
 sional claims to the lasting gratitude of the country.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OP THE CIRCUIT COURT. 79 
 
 and the admiration and reverence of every student of 
 its judicial history. 
 
 To Mr. Webster are we chiefly indebted that the 
 aegis of the National Constitution has been spread over 
 the rights of property and franchises held under State 
 charters, protecting them alike from oppressive, cor- 
 rupt, or ill-considered local legislation; to him, for 
 the first enunciation and maintenance of the great 
 theory of the entire unity of the commercial relations 
 of the several States, forbidding monopolies of any 
 nature within the navigable waters of either; and to 
 him, far beyond all others, in frequent political and 
 forensic arguments, for those masterly expositions of 
 the principles involved in the conflict of jurisdictions 
 of the general government and of the individual 
 States, which will henceforth compose, not so much 
 weapons for conflict, as acknowledged truths upon 
 which future questions shall be decided. 
 
 It is a common subject of thankfulness to the Di- 
 vine Providence, which has hitherto so mercifully 
 shaped our nation's destiny, that statesmen were ori- 
 ginally vouchsafed capable of framing and administer- 
 ing our National Constitution; and it is no less a 
 cause of reverential gratitude that, after they were 
 gathered to their fathers, another was sent equally 
 imbued with its spirit, and profound apprehension of 
 its great principles, and their far-reaching influences, 
 to apply them as a statesman and jurist in the great 
 emergencies which were soon to arise, to test its 
 adaptation to the vast ends for which it was designed. 
 
 And history, in completing the noblest column as 
 yet raised in her temple, that of American constitu-
 
 80 WEBSTER MEMORAL. 
 
 tional liberty, while inscribing upon its tablet the 
 names of Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Jay, and Hamil- 
 ton, as founders of the glorious fabric, will instinct- 
 ively add the name of Daniel Webster, as equally 
 entitled to the eternal gratitude of his countrymen, 
 as its expositor and defender. But to us, as members 
 of this Bar, who have encountered or been associated 
 with him in its arduous conflicts, have witnessed his 
 forensic efforts, and enjoyed the privileges of social 
 intercourse with him, and who have with such honest 
 pride exulted in him as our head and leader, this 
 event is of still closer interest. Who of us can ever 
 forget his broad and comprehensive views, his clear 
 and masterly statements of his cases, in themselves 
 convincing arguments, the exquisite precision and no 
 less wonderful language, his profound logic, his varied 
 and extensive learning, his dignity of manner, and 
 his matchless eloquence, his whole professional bear- 
 ing? Who of us has failed to exult as we held our 
 breath in his ascent as on eagles' wings to the high- 
 est heavens of eloquence, when conscious of the right- 
 eousness of his cause; or has not witnessed how 
 heavy became his flight and drooping his pinions 
 when conscious of a bad one? Mr. Webster could 
 not, and all honor be to his name that he could not, 
 argue a bad cause comparatively well. His mental 
 vision was too penetrating and comprehensive, his lo- 
 gic too uncompromising, his perception of truth too 
 clear, and his love of it too instinctive to fit him as 
 the champion of error. 
 
 Well may we exclaim in retrospect of his inter- 
 course and services at this Bar,
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 81 
 
 Heu ! quanta minus cum reliquis versari 
 Quam Tui meminisse. 
 
 But I forbear further allusion to our own bereave- 
 ment. Standing, as we are, amid the ruins of a na- 
 tion's fortress, the shock of whose fall is still vibrat- 
 ing throughout the land, the heart instinctively turns 
 from the meditation of comparatively private sorrow 
 to the nation's loss, and to gathering up the consola- 
 tions of remembrance and hope. True, the mighty arm 
 upon which we most confidently rested for defence 
 against foreign political encroachment, and to main- 
 tain our dignity among the nations of the earth, is 
 broken; the rock in the political wilderness which 
 needed to be touched only by the wand of patriotism, 
 to send forth gushing waters of wisdom and peace to 
 allay the fever of the people, is removed out of its 
 place; and the star that has so long guided in the 
 night and tempest of national perplexity and agi- 
 tation, is gone down forever; but the recorded trea- 
 sures of his wisdom remain imperishable ; the great 
 principles he has established or vindicated for the na- 
 tion's guidance, now become, and will forever stand 
 as household gods in the hearts of the people. "I 
 still live ! " were the last words of the dying patriot, 
 in prophetic vision of the immortality of his name and 
 services; and he will "still live" in influence and 
 grateful remembrance so long as the American Union 
 shall endure, and its flag wave over an intelligent and 
 loyal people. 
 
 Nor is the last and highest consolation wanting to 
 us. Our friend died in the profession and peace of 
 that faith which the greatest, equally with the hum- 
 
 11
 
 82 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 blest, needs in the scenes and labors of life, and in 
 passing through the valley of the shadow of death, 
 and yielded up his mighty spirit in filial trust to the 
 God who gave it; who alone knoweth the heart and 
 trieth the reins of man, and to whom alone, in faith 
 and humility, must all judgment of our fellow-men, as 
 well as of ourselves, be finally committed. 
 
 The Hon. GEORGE S. HILLARD read the following re- 
 solutions of the Bar, and asked that they be entered 
 upon the records of the Court. 
 
 Resolved, That as members of the Bar we look back with pride 
 upon Mr. Webster's professional career, and acknowledge with 
 gratitude the honor which such a life, and such powers, have shed 
 upon the law. His mind was early imbued with the bracing learn- 
 ing of the common law, the principles of which he seized with a 
 strong grasp, which neither time, nor subsequent devotion to pur- 
 suits of politics and government, ever relaxed. He was equally 
 familiar with the technical refinements of special pleading, and 
 the recondite learning of real law. Trained by long and constant 
 conflict with some of the ablest lawyers and advocates whom 
 this country has reared, his judgment in the conduct of causes, his 
 familiarity with the rules of evidence, and his presence of mind 
 in the meeting of legal emergencies, were not less conspicuous 
 than the wisdom and eloquence which have made his public career 
 so illustrious. His addresses to juries were marked by simplicity, 
 clearness, dignity, and power. His legal arguments were learned, 
 strong, luminous, and convincing. His profound and massive con- 
 stitutional arguments embody the soundest principles of interpreta- 
 tion, and form unrivalled models of logical reasoning. Hig mind 
 drew from the law no other elements than those of expansion and 
 growth ; and in the speeches and writings which have done so much 
 honor to him. and so much honor to the country, we recognize 
 the training and discipline derived from the studies and the contests 
 of the Bar. 
 
 Resolved, That as citizens of our common country, we acknow-
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 83 
 
 ledge, with profound sensibility, the great debt of gratitude and 
 admiration due to him, as an enlightened and patriotic statesman. 
 As a public man, he was just, brave, and wise ; jealous of the honor 
 of his own country, and mindful of the rights of others ; far-seeing 
 and sagacious wise to discern the right, and firm in maintaining 
 it. His political creed was the application of the rules of sound 
 morals to government. He valued constitutional liberty because 
 he understood it, and his powerful voice has penetrated wherever 
 freedom was struggling and humanity oppressed. His views were 
 broad, national, and comprehensive, limited to no party, and bounded 
 by no section of the country. He detected with unrivalled sagacity 
 the springs of national greatness, and expounded them with propor- 
 tionate clearness and power. In counsels and principles like his, 
 we see the elements of national power, of material prosperity, and 
 of moral influence. Nor should we, in his more eminent and con- 
 spicuous merits, overlook the uniform dignity and decorum of his 
 public career, the freedom from personality, and from appeals to 
 low and unworthy motives, which characterize his speeches, and the 
 high tone of thought and discussion which marks them. 
 
 Resolved, That we recognize in Mr. "Webster's life and words, 
 elements of greatness and power, independent of his career as a 
 lawyer and a statesman. A writer, a thinker, and a speaker, his 
 influence has been great while living, and will be not less great when 
 dead. His vigorous and masculine style was no more than the ade- 
 quate expression of weighty and striking thought. His eloquence 
 was simple, severe, and grand, never stooping to exaggeration or 
 extravagance, never lending itself to base or unworthy ends. His 
 writings are treasures of thought, pure in their morality, of classical 
 beauty, and ennobling in all their tendencies. His private life, not 
 less than his public, illustrated the greatness of his character. In 
 all his social and domestic relations, the varied and noble gifts of 
 his intellect and of his heart shone conspicuously. The generous 
 affections of friends, in which he was so rich, attest the integrity, 
 uprightness, and beauty of his daily walk. And when Heaven 
 decreed that he must close the majestic life which he had lived, he 
 added to that life its crowning glory, by acknowledging his humble 
 faith in the doctrines of Christianity, and by dying a Christian's 
 death.
 
 84 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Resolved, That the Bar deeply mourn the loss of one so great as 
 a statesman, so profound as a lawyer, and so noble as a man ; that 
 they tender their heartfelt sympathies to the family of the deceased, 
 and request permission to join in the funeral ceremonies. 
 
 Resolved, That the President of this meeting be requested to 
 communicate a copy of these Resolutions to the family of the de- 
 ceased, and to present the same in the Circuit Court of the United 
 States, now in session. 
 
 The Hon. RUFUS CHOATE then said: 
 
 May it please your Honors I have been requested 
 by the members of the Bar of this Court to add a 
 few words to the resolutions just read, in which they 
 have embodied, as they were able, their sorrow for 
 the death of their beloved and illustrious member and 
 countryman, Mr. Webster; their estimation of his cha- 
 racter, life, and genius; their sense of the bereave- 
 ment to the country, as to his friends, incapable of 
 repair; the pride, the fondness, the filial and the 
 patriotic pride and fondness with which they cherish, 
 and would consign to history to cherish, the memory 
 of a great and good man. 
 
 And yet, I could earnestly have desired to be ex- 
 cused from this duty. He must have known Mr. 
 Webster less, and loved him less than your Honors, 
 or than I have known and loved him, who can quite 
 yet quite yet before we can comprehend that we 
 have lost him forever before the first paleness with 
 which the news of his death overspread our cheeks has 
 passed away; before we have been down to lay him 
 in the Pilgrim soil he loved so well till the heavens 
 be no more he must have known and loved him 
 less than we have done who can come here quite 
 yet, to recount the series of his services to display
 
 PROCEEDINGS OP THE CIRCUIT COURT. So 
 
 with psychological exactness the traits of his nature 
 and mind ; to ponder and speculate on the secrets, 
 on the marvellous secrets and source of that vast 
 power, which we shall see no more in action nor 
 aught in any degree resembling it among men. 
 These first moments should be given to grief. It 
 may employ, it may promote, a calmer mood, to con- 
 struct a more elaborate and less unworthy memorial. 
 
 For the purposes of this moment and place, indeed, 
 no more is needed. What is there for this Court, or 
 for this Bar, to learn from me, here and now of him? 
 The year and the day of his birth that birth-place 
 on the frontier, yet bleak and waste ; the well of 
 which his childhood drank dug by that father of 
 whom he has said, "That through the fire and blood 
 of seven years of revolutionary war, he shrank from 
 no danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, 
 and to raise his children to a condition better than 
 his own;" the elm tree that father planted, fallen 
 now, as father and son have fallen; that training of 
 the giant infancy, on Catechism and Bible, and Watts's 
 version of the Psalms, and the traditions of Plymouth, 
 and Fort William and Mary, and the Revolution, and 
 the age of Washington and Franklin, on the banks 
 of the Merrimack, flowing sometimes in flood and 
 anger from his secret springs in the crystal hills; 
 the two district schoolmasters, Chase and Tappan; 
 the village library; the dawning of the love and am- 
 bition of letters ; the few months at Exeter and Bos- 
 cawen, the life of college, the probationary season of 
 school-teaching, the clerkship in the Fryeburg Registry 
 of Deeds ; his admission to the Bar, presided over by
 
 86 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 judges like Smith, illustrated by practisers such as 
 Mason, where, by the studies, in the contentions of 
 nine years, he laid the foundation of the professional 
 mind ; his irresistible attraction to public life, the 
 oration on Commerce, the Rockingham Resolutions, his 
 first term of four years' service in Congress, when, 
 by one bound, he sprang to his place by the side of 
 the foremost of the rising American statesmen ; his re- 
 moval to this State, and then the double and parallel 
 current in which his life, studies, thoughts, cares, have 
 since flowed, bearing him to the leadership of the Bar 
 by universal acclaim ; bearing him to the leadership 
 of public life; last of that surpassing triumvirate, 
 shall we say the greatest, the most widely celebrated 
 and admired ; all these things, to their minutest 
 details, are known and rehearsed familiarly. Happier 
 than the younger Pliny, happier than Cicero, he has 
 found his historian, unsolicited, in his lifetime and 
 his countrymen have him all by heart! 
 
 There is, then, nothing to tell you ; nothing to bring 
 to mind. And then, if I may borrow the language 
 of one of his historians and friends, one of those, 
 through whose beautiful pathos the common sorrow 
 uttered itself yesterday in Faneuil Hall "I dare not 
 come here, and dismiss, in a few summary paragraphs, 
 the character of one who has filled such a space in 
 the history, who holds such a place in the heart of 
 his country. It would be a disrespectful familiarity, 
 to a man of his lofty spirit, his great soul, his rich 
 endowments, his long and honorable life, to endeavor 
 thus to weigh and estimate them ; " a half-hour of 
 words, a handful of earth, for fifty years of great 
 deeds, on high places!
 
 PROCEEDINGS OP THE CIRCUIT COURT. 87 
 
 But although the time does not require any thing 
 elaborated and adequate, forbids it rather, some 
 broken sentences of veneration and love may be in- 
 dulged to the sorrow which oppresses us. 
 
 There presents itself, on the first, and to any ob- 
 servation of Mr. Webster's life and character, a two- 
 fold eminence ; eminence of the very highest rank in 
 a two-fold field of intellectual and public display, the 
 profession of the law, and the profession of statesman- 
 ship, of which it would not be easy to recall any 
 parallel in the biography of illustrious men. 
 
 Without seeking for parallels, and without asserting 
 that they do not exist, consider that he was by uni- 
 versal designation the leader of the general American 
 Bar; and that he was also by an equally universal 
 designation foremost of her statesmen living at his 
 death ; inferior to not one who has lived and acted 
 since the opening of his own public life. Look at 
 these aspects of his greatness separately, and from 
 opposite sides of the surpassing elevation. Consider 
 that his single career at the Bar may seem to have 
 been enough to employ the largest faculties without 
 repose, for a lifetime ; and that if then and thus 
 the "infinitus forensium rerum labor" should have con- 
 ducted him to a mere professional reward a Bench 
 of Chancery or Law the crown of the first of advo- 
 cates jurisperitomm eloquentissimus to the pure and 
 mere honors of a great magistrate ; that that would be 
 as much as is allotted to the ablest in the distribu- 
 tion of fame. Even that half if I may say so of 
 his illustrious reputation how long the labor to win 
 it how worthy of all that labor ! He was bred first
 
 88 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 in the severest school of the common law, in which 
 its doctrines were expounded by Smith., and its ad- 
 ministration shaped and directed by Mason, and its 
 foundation principles, its historical sources and illus- 
 trations, its connection with the parallel series of sta- 
 tutory enactments, its modes of reasoning, and the 
 evidence of its truths, he grasped easily and com- 
 pletely ; and I have myself heard him say, that for 
 many years while still at that Bar, he tried more 
 causes and argued more questions of fact to the jury, 
 than perhaps any other member of the profession any- 
 where. I have heard from others how even then he ex- 
 emplified the same direct, clear, and forcible exhibition 
 of proofs, and the reasonings appropriate to proofs 
 as well as the same marvellous power of discerning in- 
 stantly what we call the decisive points of the cause in 
 law and fact by which he was later more widely 
 celebrated. This was the first epoch in his professional 
 training. 
 
 With the commencement of his public life, or with 
 his later removal to this State, began the second 
 epoch of his professional training conducting him 
 through the gradation of the national tribunals to the 
 study and practice of the more flexible, elegant, and 
 scientific jurisprudence of commerce and of chancery 
 and to the grander and less fettered investigations 
 of international, prize, and constitutional law and 
 giving him to breathe the air of a more famous fo- 
 rum ; in a more public presence ; with more variety 
 of competition, although he never met abler men, as I 
 have many times heard him say, than some of those 
 who initiated him in the rugged discipline of the
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 89 
 
 Courts of New Hampshire; and thus, at length, by 
 these studies ; these labors ; this contention ; continued 
 without repose, he came, now many years ago, to 
 stand omnium assensu at the summit of the American Bar. 
 It is common, and it is easy, in the case of all in 
 such position, to point out other lawyers, here and 
 there, as possessing some special qualification or at- 
 tainment more remarkably, perhaps, because more ex- 
 clusively; to say of one that he has more cases in 
 his recollection, at any given moment ; or that he was 
 earlier grounded in equity ; or has gathered more 
 black-letter or civil law; or knowledge of Spanish or 
 Western titles ; and these comparisons were sometimes 
 made with him. But when you sought a counsel of 
 the first-rate for the great cause, who would most 
 surely discern and most powerfully expound the exact 
 law, required by the controversy, in season for use 
 who could most skilfully encounter the opposing law, 
 under whose power of analysis, persuasion, and dis- 
 play, the asserted right would assume the most pro- 
 bable aspect before the intelligence of the Judge ; 
 who, if the inquiry, became blended with, or resolved 
 into facts, could most completely develop and most 
 irresistibly expose them; one, "the law's whole thun- 
 der born to wield" when you sought such a coun- 
 sel, and could have the choice, I think the universal 
 profession would have turned to him. And this would 
 be so in nearly every description of cause, in any de- 
 partment. Some able men wield civil inquiries with 
 a peculiar ability, some criminal. How lucidly and 
 how deeply he unfolded a question of property you 
 
 all know. But then, with what address, feeling, pathos, 
 12
 
 90 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 and prudence lie defended; with what dignity and 
 crushing power, accusatorio spiritu, he prosecuted the 
 accused of crime, whom he believed to have been 
 guilty, few have seen; but none who have seen can 
 ever forget it. 
 
 Some scenes there are ; some Alpine eminences 
 rising above the high table-land of such a professional 
 life, to which, in the briefest tribute, we should love 
 to follow him. We recall that day, for an instance, 
 when he first announced, with decisive display, what 
 manner of man he was to the Supreme Court of the 
 Nation. It was in 1818, and it was in the argument 
 of the case of Dartmouth College. William Pinkney 
 was recruiting his great faculties, and replenishing 
 that reservoir of professional and elegant acquisition 
 in Europe. Samuel Dexter, "the honorable man, and 
 the counsellor, and the eloquent orator," was in his 
 grave. The boundless old-school learning of Luther 
 Martin; the silver voice and infinite analytical inge- 
 nuity and resource of Jones; the fervid genius of 
 Emmett, pouring itself along immemo ore ; the ripe and 
 beautiful culture of Wirt and Hopkinson, the steel 
 point unseen, not unfelt, beneath the foliage ; Harper, 
 himself, statesman as well as lawyer, these and such 
 as these, were left of that noble Bar. That day Mr. 
 Webster opened the cause of Dartmouth College to a 
 tribunal unsurpassed on earth in all that gives illus- 
 tration to a bench of law, not one of whom any longer 
 survives. 
 
 One would love to linger on the scene when, 
 after a masterly argument of the law, carrying, as 
 we may now know, conviction to the general mind of
 
 PROCEEDINGS OP THE CIRCUIT COURT. 91 
 
 the court, and vindicating and settling for his lifetime 
 his place in that forum, he paused to enter, with an 
 altered feeling, tone, and manner, with these words on 
 his peroration "I have conducted my alma mater to 
 this presence, that if she must fall, she may fall in 
 her robes, and with dignity," and then broke forth in 
 that strain of sublime and pathetic eloquence, of which 
 we know not much more than that, in its progress, 
 Marshall, the intellectual the self-controlled the un- 
 emotional, announced, visibly, the presence of the unac- 
 customed enchantment. 
 
 Other forensic triumphs crowd on us in other 
 competition with other issues. But I must commit 
 them to the historian of constitutional jurisprudence. 
 
 And now, if this transcendent professional reputa- 
 tion were all of Mr. Webster, it might be practicable, 
 though not easy, to find its parallel elsewhere, in our 
 own, or in European or classical biography. 
 
 But when you consider that side by side with this, 
 there was growing up that other reputation that of 
 the first American statesman, that for thirty- three 
 years, and those embracing his most herculean works 
 at the bar, he was engaged as a member of either 
 House, or in the highest of the Executive departments, 
 in the conduct of the largest national affairs in the 
 treatment of the largest national questions in de- 
 bate with the highest abilities of American public 
 life conducting diplomatic intercourse in delicate re- 
 lations, with all manner of foreign powers invest- 
 igating whole classes of truths, totally unlike the 
 truths of the law, and resting on principles totally 
 distinct, and that here, too, he was wise, safe, con-
 
 92 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 trolling, trusted, the foremost man; that Europe had 
 come to see in his life a guaranty for justice, for 
 peace, for the best hopes of civilization; and America 
 to feel surer of her glory and her safety, as his great 
 arm enfolded her you see how rare, how solitary 
 almost was the actual greatness ! Who any where has 
 won, as he had, the double fame, and worn the double 
 wreath of Murray and Chatham, of Dunning and Fox, 
 of Erskine and Pitt, of William Pinkney and Rufus 
 King, in one blended and transcendent superiority ? 
 
 I cannot attempt to grasp and sum up the aggre- 
 gate of the service of his public life at such a mo- 
 ment as this and it is needless. That life comprised 
 a term of more than thirty-three years. It produced 
 a body of performance, of which I may say generally, 
 it was all which the first abilities of the country and 
 time, employed with unexampled toil, stimulated by 
 the noblest patriotism ; in the highest places of the 
 state in the fear of God in the presence of nations 
 could possibly compass. 
 
 He came into Congress after the war of 1812 had 
 begun, and though probably deeming it unnecessary, 
 according to the highest standards of public necessity, 
 in his private character and objecting, in his public 
 character, to some of the details of the policy by 
 which it was prosecuted, and standing by party ties 
 in general opposition to the administration he never 
 breathed a sentiment calculated to depress the tone 
 of the public mind ; to aid or comfort the enemy ; to 
 check or chill the stirrings of that new, passionate, 
 unquenchable spirit of nationality, which then was re- 
 vealed, or kindled to burn till we go down to the 
 tombs of States.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 93 
 
 With the peace of 1815 his more cherished public 
 labors began; and thenceforward has he devoted him- 
 self the ardor of his civil youth the energies of 
 his maturest manhood the autumnal wisdom of the 
 ripened year to the offices of legislation and diplo- 
 macy; of preserving the peace keeping the honor 
 establishing the boundaries, and vindicating the neu- 
 tral rights of his country restoring a sound currency, 
 and laying its foundations sure and deep in up- 
 holding public credit in promoting foreign commerce 
 and domestic industry in developing our uncounted 
 material resources giving the lake and the river to 
 trade and vindicating and interpreting the Constitu- 
 tion and the law. On all these subjects, on all mea- 
 sures practically in any degree affecting them, he has 
 inscribed his opinions and left the traces of his hand. 
 Everywhere the philosophical and patriot statesman 
 and thinker will find that he has been before him, 
 lighting the way, sounding the abyss. His weighty 
 language, his sagacious warnings, his great maxims 
 of empire, will be raised to view, and live to be deci- 
 phered when the final catastrophe shall lift the granite 
 foundation in fragments from its bed. 
 
 In this connection I cannot but remark to how ex- 
 traordinary an extent had Mr. Webster, by his acts, 
 words, thoughts, or the events of his life, associated 
 himself forever in the memory of all of us with every 
 historical incident, or at least with every historical 
 epoch; with every policy, with every glory, with 
 every great name and fundamental institution, and 
 grand or beautiful image, which are peculiarly and 
 properly American. Look backwards to the planting
 
 94 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 of Plymouth and Jamestown, to the various scenes of 
 colonial life in peace and war; to the opening, and 
 march, and close of the revolutionary drama; to the 
 age of the Constitution; to Washington, and Franklin, 
 and Adams, and Jefferson; to the whole train of 
 causes, from the Reformation downwards, which pre- 
 pared us to be republicans, to that other train of 
 causes which led us to be unionists. Look round on 
 field, workshop, and deck, and hear the music of labor 
 rewarded, fed, and protected; look on the bright sis- 
 terhood of the States, each singing as a seraph in her 
 motion, yet blending in a common harmony, and there 
 is nothing which does not bring him, by some tie, to the 
 memory of America. We seem to see his form and 
 hear his deep, grave speech everywhere. By some 
 felicity of his personal life ; by some wise, deep, or 
 beautiful word, spoken or written; by some service 
 of his own, or some commemoration of the services of 
 others, it has come to pass that "our granite hills, 
 our inland seas, and prairies, and fresh, unbounded, 
 magnificent wilderness ; " our encircling ocean ; the 
 rock of the Pilgrims ; our new-born sister of the 
 Pacific ; our popular assemblies ; our free schools ; all 
 our cherished doctrines of education, and of the influ- 
 ence of religion, and material policy, and the law, and 
 the Constitution, give us back his name. What Ame- 
 rican landscape will you look on; what subject of 
 American interest will you study; what source of 
 hope or of anxiety, as an American, will you acknow- 
 ledge, that it does not recall him? 
 
 I shall not venture in this rapid and general recol- 
 lection of Mr. Webster, to attempt to analyze that
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 95 
 
 intellectual power which all admit to have been so 
 extraordinary, or to compare or contrast it with the 
 mental greatness of others in variety or degree of 
 the living or the dead; or even to appreciate exactly, 
 and in reference to canons of art, his single attribute 
 of eloquence. Consider, however, the remarkable pheno- 
 menon of excellence in three unkindred, one might 
 have thought, incompatible forms of public speech 
 that of the forum, with its double audience of bench 
 and jury, of the halls of legislation, and of the most 
 thronged and tumultuous assemblies of the people. Con- 
 sider, further, that this multiform eloquence, exactly 
 as his words fell, became at once so much accession 
 to permanent literature, in the strictest sense solid, 
 attractive, and rich and ask how often in the his- 
 tory of public life such a thing has been exemplified. 
 Recall what pervaded all these forms of display, and 
 every effort in every form, that union of naked intel- 
 lect in its largest measure, which penetrates to the 
 exact truth of the matter in hand by intuition or by 
 inference, and discerns every thing which may make 
 it intelligible, probable, or credible to another, with an 
 emotional and moral nature profound, passionate, and 
 ready to kindle, and with an imagination enough to 
 supply a hundred-fold more of illustration and aggran- 
 dizement than his taste suffered him to accept ; that 
 union of greatness of soul with depth of heart, which 
 made his speaking almost more an exhibition of cha- 
 racter than of mere genius ; the style not merely 
 pure, clear Saxon, but so constructed, so numerous as 
 far as becomes prose, so forcible, so abounding in un- 
 labored felicities, the words so choice, the epithet so
 
 96 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 pictured, the matter absolute truth, or the most 
 exact and specious resemblance the human wit can 
 devise, the treatment of the subject, if you have re- 
 gard to the kind of truth he had to handle, political, 
 ethical, legal, as deep, as complete as Paley's, or 
 Locke's, or Butler's, or Alexander Hamilton's, of their 
 subjects; yet that depth and that completeness of 
 sense, made transparent as through crystal waters, 
 all embodied in harmonious or well-composed periods, 
 raised on winged language, vivified, fused, and poured 
 along in a tide of emotion, fervid and incapable to 
 be withstood recall the form, the eye, the brow, the 
 tone of voice, the presence of the intellectual king 
 of men recall him thus, and in the language of Mr. 
 Justice Story, commemorating Samuel Dexter, we may 
 well "rejoice that we have lived in the same age, 
 that we have listened to his eloquence, and been in- 
 structed by his wisdom." 
 
 I cannot leave the subject of his eloquence without 
 returning to a thought I have advanced already. All 
 that he has left or the larger portion of all is 
 the record of spoken words. His works, as already 
 collected, extend to many volumes a library of rea- 
 son and eloquence, as Gibbon has said of Cicero's 
 but they are volumes of speeches only, or mainly ; 
 and yet who does not rank him as a great American 
 author an author as truly expounding, and as cha- 
 racteristically exemplifying in a pure, genuine, and 
 harmonious English style, the mind, thought, point of 
 view of objects, and essential nationality of his coun- 
 try, as any other of our authors, professionally so 
 denominated ? Against the maxim of Mr. Fox, his
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 97 
 
 speeches read well, and yet were good speeches 
 great speeches in the delivery. For so grave were 
 they; so thoughtful and true; so much the eloquence 
 of reason at last; so strikingly always they contrived 
 to link the immediate topic with other and broader 
 principles, ascending easily to widest generalizations ; 
 so happy was the reconciliation of the qualities which 
 engage the attention of hearers, yet reward the peru- 
 sal of students, so critically did they keep the right 
 side of the line which parts eloquence from rhetoric, and 
 so far do they rise above the penury of mere debate, 
 that the general reason of the country has enshrined 
 them at once, and forever, among our classics. 
 
 It is a common belief that Mr. Webster was a vari- 
 ous reader; and I think it is true, even to a greater 
 degree than has been believed. In his profession of 
 politics, nothing I think, worthy of attention, had es- 
 <;tj>ed him, nothing of the "ancient or modern pru- 
 dence," nothing which Greek or Roman, or European 
 speculation in that walk had explored, or Greek or 
 Koi nan, or European or universal history, or public 
 biography exemplified. I shall not soon forget with 
 what admiration he spake, at an interview to which 
 he admitted me while in the Law School at Cam- 
 bridge, of the politics and ethics of Aristotle, and of 
 the mighty mind which, as he said, seemed to have 
 " thought through " so many of the great problems 
 which form the discipline of social man. American 
 history, and American political literature he had by 
 heart, the long series of influences which trained us 
 for representative and free government; that other 
 series of influences, which moulded us into a united 
 
 13
 
 98 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 government; the Colonial era; the age of controversy 
 before the Revolution ; every scene, and every person 
 in that great tragic action; every question which has 
 successively engaged our politics, and every name 
 which has figured in them, the whole stream of our 
 time was open, clear, and present ever to his eye. 
 
 Beyond his profession of politics, so to call it, he 
 had been a diligent and choice reader, as his extraor- 
 dinary style in part reveals, and I think the love of 
 reading would have gone with him to a later and 
 riper age, if to such an age it had been the will of 
 God to reserve him. This is no place or time to ap- 
 preciate this branch of his acquisitions ; but there is 
 an interest inexpressible in knowing who were any of 
 the chosen from among the great dead in the library 
 of such a man. Others may correct me, but I should 
 say of that interior and narrower circle, were Cicero, 
 Virgil, Shakspeare whom he knew familiarly as the 
 Constitution Bacon, Milton, Burke, Johnson to 
 whom, I hope it is not pedantic nor fanciful to say, I 
 often thought his nature presented some resemblance ; 
 the same " abundance of the general propositions re- 
 quired for explaining a difficulty and refuting a 
 sophism, copiously and promptly occurring to him ; " 
 the same kindness of heart, and wealth of sensi- 
 bility; under a manner, of course, more courteous and 
 gracious, yet more sovereign ; the same sufficient, yet 
 not predominant imagination, stooping ever to truth, 
 and giving affluence, vivacity, and attraction, to a 
 powerful, correct, and weighty style of prose. 
 
 I cannot leave this life and character, without se- 
 lecting and dwelling a moment on one or two of his
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF TTIE CIRCUIT COURT. 99 
 
 traits, or virtues, or felicities, a little longer. There 
 is a collective impression made by the whole of an 
 eminent person's life, beyond and other than, and apart 
 from that which the mere general biographer would 
 afford the means of explaining. There is an influence 
 of a great man derived from tilings indescribable al- 
 most, or incapable of enumeration, or singly insufficient 
 to account for it; but through which his spirit trans- 
 pires, and his individuality goes forth on the contem- 
 porary generation. And thus, I should say, one grand 
 tendency of his life and character was to elevate the 
 whole tone of the public mind. He did this, indeed, 
 not merely by example. He did it by dealing as he 
 thought, truly, and in manly fashion, with that public 
 mind. He evinced his love of the people, not so much 
 by honeyed phrases, as by good counsels and useful 
 service, vera pro gratis. He showed how he appre- 
 ciated them, by submitting sound arguments to their 
 understandings, and right motives to their free will. 
 He came before them less with flattery than with in- 
 struction; less with a vocabulary larded with the 
 words, humanity, and philanthrophy, and progress, and 
 brotherhood, than with a scheme of politics, an educa- 
 tional, social, and governmental system, which would 
 have made them prosperous, happy, and great. 
 
 What the greatest of the Greek historians said of 
 Pericles, we all feel might be said of him, " He did not 
 so much follow as lead the people, because he framed 
 not his words to please them, like one who is gaining 
 power by unworthy means, but was able and dared the 
 on strength of his high character, even to brave their 
 anger by contradicting their will."
 
 100 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 I should indicate it as another influence of his life, 
 acts, and opinions, that it was in an extraordinary 
 degree uniformly and liberally conservative. He saw 
 with vision as of a prophet, that if our system of 
 united government can be maintained till a nation- 
 ality shall be generated of due intensity and due 
 comprehension, a glory indeed millennial, a progress 
 without end, a triumph of humanity hitherto unseen, 
 were ours ; and therefore he addressed himself to 
 maintain that united government. 
 
 Standing on the rock of Plymouth, he bade distant 
 generations hail, and saw them rising, " demanding 
 life, impatient for the skies," from what were " fresh, 
 unbounded, magnificent Avildernesses," from the shore 
 of the great tranquil sea, not yet become ours. 
 But observe to what he welcomes them, by what he 
 would bless them. " It is to good government ; " it 
 is to " treasures of science, and delights of learning ; " 
 it is to the " sweets of domestic life, the immeasu- 
 rable good of rational existence, the immortal hopes of 
 Christianity, the light of everlasting truth." 
 
 It will be happy, if the wisdom and temper of his 
 administration of our foreign affairs shall preside in 
 the ipme which is at hand. Sobered, instructed by 
 the examples and warnings of all the past, he yet 
 gathered from' the study and comparison of all the 
 eras, that there is a silent progress of the race, with- 
 out pause, without haste, without return, to which the 
 counselling^ of history are to be accommodated by a 
 wise philosophy. More than, or as much as that of 
 any of our public characters, his statesmanship was 
 one which recognized a Europe, an old world, but yet
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 101 
 
 grasped the capital idea of the American position, 
 and deduced from it the whole fashion and color of 
 its policy; which discerned that we are to play a 
 high part in human affairs, but discerned also what 
 part it is, peculiar, distant, distinct, and grand as our 
 hemisphere ; an influence, not a contact, the stage, 
 the drama, the catastrophe, all but the audience all 
 our own; and if ever he felt himself at a loss, he 
 consulted reverently the genius of Washington. 
 
 In bringing these memories to a conclusion, for I 
 omit many things because I dare not trust myself to 
 speak of them, I shall not be misunderstood, or give 
 offence, if I hope that one other trait in his public 
 character, one doctrine, rather, of his political creed, 
 may be remembered and be appreciated. It is one 
 of the two fundamental precepts in which Plato, as 
 expounded by the great master of Latin eloquence 
 and reason and morals, comprehends the duty of those 
 who share in the conduct of the state, " Ut, quce- 
 cunque agunt, TOTUM corpus reipublicce curent ; nedum 
 partem aliquam tuentur, reliquas desemiii" that they com- 
 prise in their care the whole body of the republic, 
 nor keep one part and desert another. He gives the 
 reason, one reason, of the precept, " Qui autem parti 
 ctrium coimilunt, partem negligunt, rem perniciosissimam in 
 cirttdleiti inducunt, seditionem atque discordiam" The 
 patriotism which embraces less than the whole, in- 
 duces sedition and discord, the last evil of the state. 
 
 How profoundly he had comprehended this truth ; 
 with what persistency, Avith what passion, from the 
 first hour he became a public man, to the last beat 
 of the great heart, he cherished it ; how little he ac-
 
 102 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 counted the good, the praise, the blame, of this locality 
 or that^ in comparison of the larger good, and the 
 general and thoughtful approval of his own and our 
 whole America, she this day feels and announces. 
 Wheresoever a drop of her blood flows in the veins 
 of man, this trait is felt and appreciated. The hunter 
 beyond Superior, the fisherman on the deck of the 
 nigh night-foundered skiff, the sailor on the uttermost 
 sea, will feel, as he hears these tidings, that the pro- 
 tection of a sleepless, all-embracing parental care, is 
 withdrawn from him for a space, and that his path- 
 way henceforward is more solitary and less safe than 
 before. 
 
 But I cannot pursue these thoughts. Among the 
 eulogists who have just uttered the eloquent sorrow 
 of England at the death of the great Duke, one has 
 employed an image, and an idea, which I venture to 
 modify and appropriate. 
 
 "The Northmen's image of death is finer than that 
 of other climes ; no skeleton, but a gigantic figure 
 that envelops men within the massive folds of its dark 
 garment. Webster seems so enshrouded from us, as 
 the last of the mighty Three, themselves following a 
 mighty series ; the greatest closing the procession. 
 The robe draws round him, and the era is past." 
 
 Yet how much there is which that all-ample fold 
 shall not hide ; the recorded wisdom ; the great ex- 
 ample ; the assured immortality. 
 
 They speak of monuments! 
 
 Nothing can cover his high fame but heaven, 
 No pyramids set-off his memories 
 But the eternal substance of his greatness ; 
 To which I leave him.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 103 
 
 GEORGE T. CURTIS, Esq., followed Mr. Choate : 
 
 May it please your Honors In the general sorrow 
 which pervades all hearts, perhaps the consoling re- 
 flections which I am able to bring from the last 
 earthly presence of the great departed will find ap- 
 propriate expression here. 
 
 We have all witnessed his life. We have known 
 him in the Senate, in the forum, in the popular 
 assembly, in the social circle; in all the works and 
 the duties of the manifold relations which he filled 
 with his own peculiar greatness. 
 
 It was my privilege, also, to have witnessed his 
 death, so grand, so tranquil, that we who stood and 
 watched the moments that were slowly bearing away 
 from us his great spirit, could scarcely feel the weight 
 of the affliction which was descending upon our souls, 
 and when in the silence of that chamber, which the 
 breath of an infant would have broken, the dread an- 
 nouncement came at last, we seemed to have watched, 
 and served, and prayed, not at a dissolution of this 
 "mortal coil," but at a translation of some great ser- 
 vant of God into the realms of bliss. 
 
 It is known to all that the death of Mr. Webster 
 was, in all respects, worthy of his life. It was more. 
 It was the consummation of his character, the crown- 
 ing glory of his whole mortal existence. It was his 
 singular happiness to have been able to approach the 
 dark portals of the tomb with a perfectly distinct and 
 clear perception, that they had been opened to receive 
 him; and yet with his mind under its own entire 
 control, as completely as it had ever been, since it 
 came from his Maker's hands.
 
 104 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 The manner in which he kept himself in a per- 
 fectly elevated, noble, and religious state of mind, 
 and yet never lost sight of the smallest duties, or 
 failed in the expression of a kind thought to those 
 about him, seemed to me to mark the greatness of 
 his nature, more than all the other proofs of intel- 
 lectual supremacy which his life has exhibited. His 
 vast intellect never changed its relations to any sub- 
 ject, any thing, or any person; never lost the sense 
 of what was due to his own character and his own 
 position among men ; never withdrew itself from a 
 single occupation ; never exchanged the activity of 
 life for the imbecilities of disease ; never yielded to 
 complaint ; never surrendered itself to aught but the 
 final grasp of death, which shut it from earthly mani- 
 festation. 
 
 In all this extraordinary exhibition of the power 
 and balance of his mind, there was nothing of Roman 
 stoicism. A more than Roman dignity enveloped him 
 to the end. His warm affections remained unchanged, 
 overflowing to all around him ; and he could not so 
 have died if he had not been sustained by a religious 
 faith, such a mind like his must possess if it lives at 
 all. There was nothing in his faith of a technical 
 character. No expression escaped him which would 
 mark him as of this or that theology, or of any 
 church, save the universal church of Christ. " What," 
 said he, to those who gathered about him, " what 
 would be the condition of any of us without the hope 
 of immortality ?" 
 
 What is there to rest that hope upon but the Gos- 
 pel ? And it was while resting his hope upon that
 
 PROCEEDINGS OP THE CIRCUIT COURT. 105 
 
 foundation that he could look back over his long life 
 and say, " My general wish on earth has been to do 
 my Maker's will. I thank him. I thank him for the 
 means of doing some little good for these beloved ob- 
 jects, for the blessings that surround me, for my 
 nature and associations. I thank him that I am to 
 die under so many circumstances of love and affec- 
 tion." It was his good fortune, also, in which, con- 
 sidering how far from that spot his public duties 
 considerably drew him, we may see almost a special 
 Providence, that he died in the home of his aifec- 
 tions, and away from all the scenes and exactions of 
 political strife. 
 
 There his last days, and even hours, were given 
 peacefully to the great concerns of his country, from 
 which his attention was never withdrawn, until the 
 messenger from another world was actually at the 
 door. There he found solace to his declining strength, 
 amid the scenes of nature which he so passionately 
 loved, and in which he had been so long accustomed 
 to renew his power. 
 
 There were the graves of the loved and lost who 
 had gone before him; there was the beautiful home, 
 which his fame has made historical, and which he 
 fondly trusted would remain to his blood and name 
 through the generations that still gather around its 
 hearth. There his great heart could expand itself 
 to the love of those nearest and dearest to him on 
 earth, and there he could receive as he did receive 
 from those not present as well as from those who 
 were about him, a ministry of veneration and love 
 which will be to them a precious recollection forever. 
 
 14
 
 106 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Mr. Justice SPRAGUE replied: 
 
 The event we deplore is solemn, is appalling, not 
 only as a calamity and for the void which it creates, 
 but still more as bringing with it an overwhelming 
 sense of the nothingness of human power. Others 
 may have excelled Mr. Webster in some intellectual 
 endowment, but in the combination of the statesman, 
 the orator, the diplomatist, the jurist, and the advo- 
 cate, the present age has produced no equal, and no 
 age a superior. 
 
 It was my lot to be associated with him in ; both 
 branches of the National Legislature, and as a mem- 
 ber of the same political party, of the same profes- 
 sion, and from the same section of the country. It is 
 now nearly twenty-seven years since I entered the 
 House of Representatives, of which he was then a 
 member. The preeminence asserted for him by his 
 friends, was not then conceded by his opponents. But 
 it was soon observable that whenever a debate arose 
 in which Mr. Webster took an earnest part, even those 
 who were most strenuous in denying his general supe- 
 riority, were constrained to admit that upon that occa- 
 sion he had excelled all others. These occasions at 
 length became so multiplied, with so many opponents, 
 and upon such a variety of topics, that in spite of 
 sectional jealousy, of party prejudice and intolerance, 
 and of personal partialities and local pride, the admis- 
 sion of his superiority was forced upon unwilling 
 minds, and from reluctant lips, and he stood confessed 
 by all unequalled in intellectual power. In the most 
 violent times, under the most exasperating attacks, 
 personal and political, he never transcended the limits
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 107 
 
 of good taste or parliamentary decorum never vio- 
 lated the courtesy and dignity of senatorial debate. 
 
 Should any be disposed to say of him as was said 
 of Burke 
 
 Born for the universe, he narrowed his mind, 
 And to party gave up what was meant for mankind, 
 
 it should be answered also, that what he gave to 
 party he gave to mankind ; for he established prin- 
 ciples and elucidated truths of universal application 
 and eternal duration. 
 
 No man can read his speeches without clearer views 
 upon great political problems, without a more pro- 
 found comprehension of the true foundation upon 
 which civil society should be erected, and the just 
 rules by which its affairs should be conducted. 
 
 No candid mind can rise from the perusal of his 
 works without a more just and elevated appreciation 
 of our own Constitution and Government, a warmer 
 and more exalted patriotism, without being a truer 
 and firmer friend of real republicanism, of justice, of 
 law, of order, of universal regulated liberty. 
 
 The present occasion does not permit me to verify 
 these general remarks by specific and detailed refer- 
 ences, nor has the time arrived when his later efforts 
 can be dispassionately considered. 
 
 But there is one speech made, so long since as to 
 be now matter of history, and involving no topic of 
 personal excitement, of which I have been especially 
 requested to speak, because it is the most celebrated, 
 and of the then Senators from New England, I am, 
 with one exception, the only survivor ; and it is pro-
 
 108 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 per to speak of it here and now, because a great 
 vital question of constitutional law was by that speech 
 settled as completely and irrevocably as it could have 
 been by the greatest minds in the highest judicial 
 tribunals. 
 
 Mr. Foot's resolutions involved merely the question 
 of limiting or extending the survey of the public 
 lands. Upon this, Mr. Benton and Mr. Hayne ad- 
 dressed the Senate, condemning the policy of the 
 Eastern States, as illiberal towards the West. Mr. Web- 
 ster replied, in vindication of New England and the 
 policy of the Government. It was then that General 
 Hayne made the assault which that speech repelled. 
 
 It has been asked if it be possible that that reply 
 was made without previous preparation. There could 
 have been no special preparation before the speech 
 began to which it was an answer. When General 
 Hayne closed, Mr. Webster followed, with the interval 
 only of the usual adjournment of one night, 
 
 His reply was made to repel an attack, sudden, 
 unexpected, and almost unexampled, an attack upon 
 Mr. Webster personally, upon Massachusetts and New 
 England, and upon the Constitution. 
 
 There can be little doubt that this attack was the 
 result of premeditation, concert, and arrangement. His 
 assailant selected his own time, and that too, pecu- 
 liarly inconvenient to Mr. Webster, for at that mo- 
 ment the Supreme Court were proceeding in the 
 hearing of a cause of great importance, in which he 
 was leading counsel. For this reason, he requested, 
 through a friend, a postponement of the debate. Gene- 
 ral Hayne objected, and the request was refused. The
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 109 
 
 assailant, too, selected his own ground, and made his 
 choice of topics, without reference to the resolution 
 before the Senate, or the legitimate subject of debate. 
 The time, the matter, and the manner, indicate that 
 the attack was made with a design to crush a formi- 
 dable political opponent. To this end, personal history, 
 the annals of New England and of the federal party 
 Avere ransacked for materials. It was attempted to 
 make him responsible, not only for what was his own, 
 but for the opinions and conduct of others. All the 
 errors and delinquencies, real or supposed, of Massa- 
 chusetts and the Eastern States, and of the federal 
 party, during the Avar of 1812, and throughout their 
 history, AA T ere to be accumulated on him. It Avas sup- 
 posed, that, as a representative, he would be driven 
 to attempt to defend what was indefensible, and to up- 
 hold Avhat could not be sustained, and as a federalist, 
 to oppose the popular resolutions of '98. 
 
 Gen. Ilayne heralded his speech with a declaration 
 of Avar, Avith taunts and threats, vaunting anticipated 
 triumph, as if to paralyze by intimidation ; saying that 
 he had something rankling in his breast, and that he 
 Avould carry the war into Africa, until he had obtain- 
 ed indemnity for the past, and security for the future. 
 
 Mr. Webster evidently felt the magnitude of the 
 occasion, and a consciousness that he was more than 
 equal to it. On no other occasion, although I have 
 heard him hundreds of times, have I seen him so 
 thoroughly aroused. Yet when he commenced, and 
 throughout the whole, he was perfectly self-possessed 
 and self-controlled. Never was his bearing more lofty, 
 his person more majestic, his manner more appropriate 
 and impressive.
 
 110 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 At first a few of his opponents made some show of 
 indifference. But the power of the orator soon swept 
 away all affectation, and a solemn, deep, absorbing in- 
 terest was manifested by all, and continued even 
 through his profound discussion of Constitutional law. 
 
 When he closed, the impression upon all was too 
 deep for utterance, and, to this day, no one who was 
 present has spoken of that speech but as a matchless 
 achievement and a complete triumph. When he sat 
 down, General Hayne arose, and endeavored to restate 
 and reenforce his argument. This instantly called 
 forth from Mr. Webster that final, condensed reply 
 which has the force of a moral demonstration. 
 
 The value of that speech cannot be measured, with- 
 out a just appreciation of our Constitution, and of re- 
 publican government. Nullification had become formi- 
 dable. It had been practically adopted in high places, 
 and was sustained by several States, and some of the 
 ablest minds of the South, and was daily gaining 
 strength, as the offspring of the resolutions of '98. By 
 this single effort that deadly heresy was prostrated 
 and crushed forever. 
 
 No speech, ancient or modern, has within the same 
 time convinced so many minds, and produced so great 
 and salutary results. It was not addressed merely to 
 the enlightened and reflecting audience around him, 
 but to this great reading nation, and to the civilized 
 world. If the doctrines of General Hayne had pre- 
 vailed, this Union would have been shattered into 
 fragments ; but Mr. Webster and his doctrines have 
 triumphed, and our Union remains, in all its magni- 
 ficence and beneficence.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. Ill 
 
 When Mr. Webster first entered the State Depart- 
 ment, our foreign affairs, particularly with Great Bri- 
 tain, were complicated and critical in the extreme. 
 Adverse military forces had been gathered upon our 
 north-eastern boundary. In relation to the affair of 
 the Caroline, an unsound doctrine of international law 
 had been put forth 011 our part, which, if it had been 
 carried out by the threatened punishment of the sol- 
 dier McLeod, would immediately have brought a hostile 
 fleet upon our coast. The matter of the Creole, too, 
 was a further disturbing cause. Mr. Webster extri- 
 cated the Government from the false position in which 
 it had been placed by his predecessor, by frankly 
 conceding what we could not justly maintain, and 
 planting himself only upon the right. 
 
 His state papers, during the administration of Har- 
 rison and Tyler, are unsurpassed in power, truth, and 
 propriety. His diplomacy was consummate. It attain- 
 ed complete success, and entitled him to the gratitude 
 of his country and the world. If his principles and 
 practice should be followed by all nations, war would 
 cease, and the reign of peace be universal. 
 
 Men distinguished in political life have often at- 
 tempted in vain to command success at the bar, while 
 great lawyers have signally failed in a parliamentary 
 career. Distinct powers are required for each. For 
 the one, the power of resolving a question into its 
 elements; and for the other, the power of combina- 
 tion, of dealing with masses, and of holding great sub- 
 jects in a comprehensive grasp. Mr. Webster pos- 
 sessed both, preeminently.
 
 112 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 As a lawyer, he for nearly thirty years stood at 
 the head of the Bar of the United States, without a 
 rival ; while, at the same time, he maintained his pre- 
 eminence as a statesman and an orator, in the halls 
 of Congress, or at the head of a Cabinet. In consultr 
 ation, no man was more weighty ; in trials at the bar, 
 no man was his equal. He possessed every requisite 
 for success in the highest degree. Eloquent, saga- 
 cious, fearless, circumspect, ready, learned, and pro- 
 found. No other lawyer has so ably expounded the 
 Constitution, and no one has done so much to main- 
 tain it upon its true foundation, and in its just pro- 
 portions. Superior as he must have felt himself to 
 be, to those whom he generally addressed, that supe- 
 riority was never asserted in his manner towards the 
 bench, which was uniformly respectful and deferential. 
 He wished the law to be revered, and he knew that 
 reverence for it could not be maintained without re- 
 spect for the tribunals by which it is administered. 
 Faithful to his clients, he was also true to the court, 
 and never, for temporary success, exerted his great 
 powers to subvert fundamental principles, or confound 
 the rules of right. He never used his gigantic 
 strength to remove the landmarks of the law. He 
 dealt with facts as an advocate, but with the law as 
 a jurist. It was with him a science, upon which de- 
 pended public and private right, social order, the 
 peace, the existence of civilized society. I leave to 
 the learned Justice of the Supreme Court, who has 
 been so recently and intimately associated with him 
 at the bar, to present a more complete delineation of 
 his forensic character.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 113 
 
 Extraordinary as were the natural gifts of the great 
 departed, he did not trust to them alone. He was 
 laborious, but not with incessant toil. He gave him- 
 self frequent intervals of relaxation and repose ; but 
 when his mind was brought into earnest exercise, it 
 worked with an intensity and effect that could not 
 be exceeded. One part of his intellectual training 
 particularly recommends itself to the young men of 
 his own profession. When any question was presented 
 to his mind, he was not content to examine it only 
 to see what could be said on his own side, or to 
 maintain a thesis, but he investigated the subject on 
 all sides, sounded its depths, explored its foundations, 
 and having found the truth, laid it up as a treasure 
 to be kept forever. It was thus that he amassed 
 amazing intellectual wealth, upon which he could 
 draw at any time as an exhaustless mine. He had a 
 profound respect and reverence for the Christian reli- 
 gion and its ordinances. Whenever he spoke of them 
 it was in deep tones of solemnity and awe. No one 
 who knew him would presume to speak of them 
 lightly or thoughtlessly in his presence. 
 
 I had hoped that when the time should have arriv- 
 ed for his withdrawal from the active scenes of poli- 
 tical life, he would, in his rural retreat, have devoted 
 his last years to the investigation and contemplation 
 of the momentous subject of revelation and a future 
 life, and that he would have given to the world the 
 fruits of the inquiries and reflections of his great 
 mind. Such a work would have been of transcendent 
 value, and a graceful close, and the crowning glory 
 of the labors of his life. But Infinite Wisdom and 
 
 15
 
 114 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Infinite Goodness have ordered it otherwise, and we 
 have only to bow in humble submission to the dis- 
 pensation. 
 
 Mr. Justice CURTIS said: 
 
 I receive with deep sensibility the resolutions of 
 the Bar, and the remarks of yourself, Mr. Attorney, 
 and of the other gentlemen who have addressed us. 
 The death of this illustrious statesman and jurist has 
 produced a profound impression everywhere in the 
 country to whose service he devoted his life, and will 
 be felt as an event not unimportant in the civilized 
 world. 
 
 Among the gentlemen of this Bar, of which he was 
 a member, with very many of whom he held relations 
 of private friendship, and for whom, as a body, he 
 was ever ready to manifest a fraternal regard, and in 
 this Court, which, for more than thirty years, he has 
 enlightened and assisted by his labors, a deep feeling 
 of private grief mingles itself with our sense of the 
 public loss. How great this loss is cannot be de- 
 scribed, for it cannot now be even known. The dark- 
 ness of the future covers the dangers which the Pro- 
 vidence of God may permit our country to encounter, 
 and hides from view our needs for the patriotism and 
 surpassing mental power of Mr. Webster. In a go- 
 vernment depending for its existence on opinion, the 
 withdrawal of a mind which exercised so great an in- 
 fluence for the preservation and stability of our coun- 
 try, not only in the public councils, but among the 
 people themselves, is a loss indeed. 
 
 We submit ourselves to it as inevitable, as having
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 115 
 
 come at the time appointed by the will of Him in 
 whose hand is the destiny of nations, and of men, and 
 with gratitude that so much has been accomplished by 
 him, and so much left for the instruction of this and 
 future times. Of his services and works as a states- 
 man, I can say nothing after what others have said. 
 
 But receiving these communications from his breth- 
 ren of the Bar, I am strongly reminded of the im- 
 portance to them of the memory and fame of this 
 great lawyer. The illustrious names and great deeds 
 which centuries have gathered are the richest treasures 
 of a nation. The master-pieces of literature and art 
 dignify the pursuits in which they were produced. 
 
 We may claim Daniel Webster as an American law- 
 yer. Born during the War of the Revolution, in a 
 family which took an honorable part in that great 
 struggle, he was imbued from his infancy with Ame- 
 rican ideas and principles. He was reared in the sim- 
 ple habits of a New England home. He was forced 
 early into the rough and invigorating contact with 
 nature among the mountains where he had his birth- 
 place. He was trained in the college of his native 
 State. He studied our common law ; for although it 
 was painfully wrought out from age to age in another 
 land, yet it was by our ancestors, and I thank God 
 that by as good a title as can be shown under its 
 rules, it is our healthy and manly intellectual, as well 
 as political, inheritance. He knew it as it is in Lit- 
 tleton, this his great commentator, and in Plowden 
 and Saunders, as well as in its more modern sources. 
 II is mind was imbued with its logic, and its peculiar 
 style was as familiar to him as that of Taylor or Mil-
 
 116 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 ton. Its fundamental principles had become a part of 
 the structure of his mind, and under these new skies 
 he maintained and advanced those great principles of 
 personal liberty under the law and by the law, and 
 the absolute security of private property, which con- 
 stitute the vital power of the common law. But it 
 must not be forgotten, for the honor of American ju- 
 risprudence, and for his honor, that he entered a field 
 such as has existed nowhere else in any age. 
 
 It was and is one of the excellencies of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States that it did not attempt 
 too much, that it is neither a treatise nor a code, but 
 a simple enumeration of the great powers and princi- 
 ples necessary to constitute the government of our 
 country. When this government was put into opera- 
 tion in the same territory and over the same people, 
 having distinct State governments of their own, ques- 
 tions of the last importance to the tranquillity and 
 peace of the country, and to the efficiency and suc- 
 cess of the new government, necessarily arose. Few 
 men, whose attention has not been particularly direct- 
 ed to this subject, are aware of the number, the im- 
 portance, or the difficulty of these questions. A coun- 
 try, already vast in extent, and whose resources, in a 
 rapid course of development, were incalculable j whose 
 people, after great suffering, had, by their own acts, 
 become a nation, had created a court of justice, and 
 delegated to it the power, and imposed upon it, under 
 the most solemn sanctions, the duty of declaring void 
 all legislative acts not in conformity with the Consti- 
 tution, and of restraining within their appropriate limits 
 of power the State sovereignties under which the peo- 
 ple lived.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 117 
 
 Questions which elsewhere could have been settled 
 only by mere force, or by diplomatic negotiations, 
 which force influences, were here to be brought to 
 an arbitrament, according to the staid, settled, and re- 
 gular course of judicial procedure. 
 
 Into these contests Mr. Webster entered, and for 
 them he was fitted, I think, as no other man has 
 been. He brought to these great debates extensive 
 and accurate historical learning, especially concerning 
 the Constitution itself; a clearness of conception, com- 
 prehensiveness of grasp, and logical power never sur- 
 passed ; and to all these was added a command of 
 the English tongue, which, for demonstrative oratory, 
 has, I think, not been equalled. 
 
 We may all conceive, what many yet know, that he 
 was able to render, and did render to his country, and 
 to the cause of justice and peace, the most eminent 
 service, in this unobtrusive but important scene of 
 action. And we shall make but poor use of his great 
 example if we do not borrow from it higher concep- 
 tions and broader views of the capacities and duties 
 of his and our profession. Of even the most promi- 
 nent causes of great and permanent public importance 
 in which Mr. Webster was engaged, there is not time 
 here to speak, but it may be said generally, without 
 doing any injustice to the great magistrates by whom 
 they were determined, what indeed they were ever 
 ready to acknowledge, that they derived most import- 
 ant assistance from the labors of Mr. Webster. 
 
 It is the general destiny of lawyers to leave behind 
 them but few traces, and no monuments, of their in- 
 tellectual labor. Eloquence and learning, and devotion
 
 118 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 to duty, and strenuous effort, and high courage, serve 
 their uses of the day, and doubtless find their regard 
 in the breast of their possessor, but with him often 
 dies even their memory. How little do we know of 
 the forensic arguments of Ames, or Dexter, or Otis. 
 Vague impressions of their power still linger on the 
 fleeting recollections of a few living men, to depart, 
 when they go home, and leave no trace behind. 
 
 To a very considerable extent Mr. Webster will pro- 
 bably not partake of this ordinary lot of his brethren. 
 Many of his forensic arguments have been made in 
 causes of such great and permanent importance, they 
 are so admirable in themselves, and in general have 
 been so well preserved, that they may be expected 
 to be recurred to and studied while the Constitution 
 shall endure. 
 
 What estimate posterity may form of the importr 
 ance to them of this part of his labors, it would be 
 presumptuous in us to attempt to decide. But for 
 ourselves we can declare, that he who has strength- 
 ened the foundations of the Constitution, and shielded 
 it from hostile attack, and made apparent to the af- 
 fections of the people, the strength and beauty of its 
 proportions and the peace and safety which are to be 
 found only within its walls, has rendered to us a ser- 
 vice not lightly to be esteemed or soon forgotten. 
 
 That in this I do but feebly express what this nation 
 now feels, no man can doubt. To what has been so 
 eloquently said at the Bar concerning his life and his 
 death, it cannot be necessary that I should express 
 my assent. But I desire to say, what I strongly feel 
 and what it must gratify every man who loves his
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT. 119 
 
 country to feel, that the death of Mr. Webster has 
 given us a new and affecting proof that we are indeed 
 one people, united by a common attachment to our 
 country and to its great institutions and principles, 
 and to the men who represent and uphold them; 
 that underneath the strife of parties and the more 
 miserable contests of sections and factions, deep in the 
 American heart is a love of the whole country, and 
 therefore it is that from that heart has come the utter- 
 ances of grief, which arise everywhere over this broad 
 land ; grief for the loss of the man whose heart was 
 large enough, and whose mind was comprehensive 
 enough to include this Union, with all its interests 
 and dependencies, and opinions, and obligations, and 
 rights. And the great principles which he had so 
 powerfully taught in his life, receive from his death a 
 new sanction by his countrymen.
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT 
 
 OF 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 16
 
 
 
 Ld
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUPREME JUDICIAL 
 COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 THIS Court was holding the Law Term at Taunton, 
 in Bristol county. There were present Chief Justice 
 SHAW, and Justices DEWEY, METCALF, BIGELOW, and 
 GUSHING. 
 
 A meeting of the Bar was held October 26; Hon. 
 Charles J. Holmes, of Fall River, was chosen Chair- 
 man, and Jacob H. Loud, of Plymouth, was appointed 
 Secretary. A Committee of seven was appointed by 
 the Chair, to take such order, and report such resolu- 
 tions, as would express the sentiments of the Bar on 
 occasion of the demise of the late Honorable Daniel 
 Webster ; and Messrs. Coffin of New Bedford, Whitman 
 of Abington, G. Marston of Barnstable, Colby of New 
 Bedford, Farnsworth of Pawtucket, Eliot of New Bed- 
 ford, and Miller of Wareham, were appointed said 
 Committee. 
 
 The Committee presented the following Resolutions, 
 which were unanimously adopted. 
 
 The members of the Bar of the Old Colony, composed of the 
 counties of Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, and Dukes County, hav- 
 ing learned with the most profound sorrow the decease of the
 
 124 WEBSTEK MEMORIAL. 
 
 Honorable Daniel "Webster, avail themselves of this earliest oppor- 
 tunity, at their Annual Meeting at the Law Term of the Supreme 
 Judicial Court, now held at Taunton, to express the sentiments 
 which they entertain, in common with the whole country, at the 
 irreparable loss which they and that country have sustained ; 
 Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That the services of Daniel Webster to his country 
 demand, from the members of this Bar, an expression of their deep 
 sorrow at his decease, and of their admiration for the unrivalled 
 greatness of his character. 
 
 Resolved, That this Bar desire to withdraw for a season from their 
 ordinary pursuits, to meditate upon the loss of the most eminent of 
 their number, and to mingle their sorrows with those of a nation that 
 now mourns his departure. 
 
 Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the family of our 
 deceased Brother, and that a copy of these Resolutions, as an ex- 
 pression of that sympathy, be transmitted to them. 
 
 Resolved, That the Attorney- General of the Commonwealth be 
 requested to present these Resolutions to the Supreme Judicial 
 Court now in session, and ask that they may be entered on their 
 records. 
 
 Upon presenting the foregoing resolutions, Attor- 
 ney-General CLIFFORD addressed the Court : 
 
 May it please your Honors At the request of 
 my Brethren of the Bar of the Old Colony, and as 
 their organ, I rise to ask your Honors to suspend 
 for a while our customary labors, in recognition of 
 an event, which requires, from us to you, no formal 
 announcement. It has already shrouded the nation 
 in gloom, and bowed in grief the universal heart. 
 
 Our elder Brother of the Bar, our professional ex- 
 emplar, guide, and friend, Daniel Webster, is no 
 more ! And where, throughout the broad land, which 
 is filled with the tokens of his labors and his life, 
 where can the homelike feeling of personal grief, for
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUPREME COURT. 125 
 
 a personal loss, find a more natural and fitting ex- 
 pression, than among his 1 professional brethren of the 
 Old Colony? Here was the latest home of his affec- 
 tions. It will be the last home of all of him that 
 belongs to earth. 
 
 At our first annual assembling in the presence of 
 this Court, where his living voice has so often uttered 
 the highest wisdom, and where his spirit will long 
 linger, I am desired to submit to the Court certain 
 resolutions, which the Bar have adopted, as an expres- 
 sion of their sense of the magnitude of the loss which 
 they, in common with the whole country, have sus- 
 tained. They have had no time, or opportunity, nor 
 have they desired it, to clothe in any elaborate forms 
 of rhetoric, the sentiments with which this solemn 
 event has filled their hearts. They offer these brief 
 resolutions as a simple and spontaneous expression 
 of the feeling which this great national bereave- 
 ment has inspired. And 1 shall most satisfactorily 
 discharge the duty with which I am charged by my 
 brethren, and best answer their expectations and 
 wishes, by accompanying them with a few simple 
 prefatory words. 
 
 Under this autumn sun, a rich harvest has been 
 gathered into the garner of mortality. In both hem- 
 ispheres, the two foremost men of the two leading 
 nations of the civilized world, to each of whom was 
 committed by their Creator the perilous gift of the 
 ten talents, have been summoned by Him to give an 
 account of their stewardship ; the soldier-statesman 
 the lawyer-statesman, each in his sphere mightiest 
 among the mighty ; both, too, following close upon
 
 126 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 the footsteps of another great luminary of our pro- 
 fession, whose mortal light has just faded behind yon- 
 der western hills, and for whose departure the tears 
 are yet moist upon a nation's cheek. 
 
 Were it not, Mr. Chief Justice, for our Christian 
 faith in that overruling Providence, whose dread sum- 
 mons it is that has just been so often sounded in 
 our ears, and who we know " ordereth all things 
 well," as he u doeth his pleasure among the inhabit- 
 ants of the earth," we might be tempted, in this 
 hour of our bereavement, to utter the desponding la- 
 mentation which the great poet has so touchingly 
 expressed in verse. 
 
 We have fallen upon evil days, 
 Star after star decays, 
 The brightest names, that shed 
 Light o'er the land, have fled. 
 
 In contemplating the character and career of Mr. 
 Webster as a lawyer, we can scarcely measure the 
 magnitude of the debt which, as lawyers, we owe to 
 him. Let those who aspire to reach the pure heights 
 of this noble profession and who that is stirred by 
 a spark of worthy ambition, does not so aspire ? 
 remember the encouragement his life has furnished 
 to every youth whose days are devoted to its toil- 
 some pursuit. What a reflected light have his great 
 achievements thrown back upon the humble home of 
 his childhood among the New Hampshire hills ; from 
 which, by patient and unremitting labor, devoted with 
 unsurpassed fidelity to his profession, he advanced to 
 a position in the world's regard which will make that 
 humble home a shrine of pilgrimage through all com-
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPREME COURT. 127 
 
 ing time. Wherever, throughout the world, justice is 
 administered among men, he has made the name of 
 an American lawyer an honored name. His worthy 
 conceptions of the true character of the profession, 
 the exalted aims which he early set before himself, 
 in its pursuit, and the admirable and resolute train- 
 ing of all his great faculties to meet its require- 
 ments, enabled him to shed upon it a new glory, by 
 showing to the world its fitness for training the in- 
 tellectual powers for the highest achievements of 
 statesmanship. To the most brilliant effort of his 
 public career, he carried the training and discipline 
 of the lawyer's mind, and through it he achieved a 
 triumph for himself and for his country, the effects 
 of which will last as long as the Union which it esta- 
 blished, and the memory of which will be coeval with 
 the knowledge of his native tongue. 
 
 When he was summoned to that " Great Debate," 
 he found that in certain portions of the country there 
 was a prevalent, confused idea, that the Government 
 of the United States was a mere confederation, or 
 congeries of independent States, a phantom, an unreal 
 mockery of power. With a masterly exertion of that 
 great faculty which he possessed in so eminent a de- 
 gree beyond all other men, of making the most com- 
 plicated and difficult problem simple and intelligible 
 to the humblest mind, he established that Government 
 on the irreversible convictions of the people of this 
 country, as a real, living, substantial thing the effi- 
 cient Government of a great Empire, founded upon 
 the sovereignty of the whole people.
 
 128 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 No other man of our time could have accomplished 
 this great work, so vital to every interest of this 
 Union. Mighty in intellect, of a most majestic pre- 
 sence, of infinite gifts and resources, the impress of 
 greatness was stamped upon him by the hand of the 
 Almighty. He seemed to be the very type and em- 
 bodiment of Shakspeare's apostrophe to man : K How 
 noble in reason how infinite in faculties in form 
 and moving, how express and admirable in appre- 
 hension how like a God ! " 
 
 But he has gone from amongst us, and we would 
 turn in cheerful Christian faith from the gloomy as- 
 pect of this great bereavement, to the felicities which 
 attended the close of his earthly career. 
 
 He had rounded the full measure of threescore 
 years and ten. The great record of his long life's 
 services to his country had been made up. His work 
 was finished. He enjoyed the full fruition of that 
 Eastern benediction which is so dear to the heart of 
 man, that it has been wrought into the expression of 
 a universal wish, "May you die among your kindred." 
 More than all, it was vouchsafed to him to realize 
 the hope, which he once expressed in language of 
 surpassing sublimity and fervor, that " When his eye 
 should be turned for the last time to behold the 
 sun in heaven, he might not see him shining on the 
 broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious 
 Union." Thanks be to God, "its last feeble and lin- 
 gering glance beheld the gorgeous ensign of the Re- 
 public, known and honored throughout the earth, still 
 full high advanced not a stripe erased or polluted, 
 or a star obscured."
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPREME COURT. 129 
 
 And thus this great man departed. Surrounded 
 by all 
 
 that which should accompany old age, 
 As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends. 
 
 His last words still echo in our ears, as they will 
 echo in the ears of other generations of men, long 
 after we shall have passed away like the dust of the 
 summer threshing-floor. " I still live." How true for 
 him, in this world, throughout all time. " Vita brevis 
 est ; cursus glorice sempitermis" May we not hum- 
 bly trust that it was equally true for him in that 
 higher and better sense which assures us of his par- 
 ticipation in the gracious promise, " He that liveth 
 and believeth in me, shall never die." 
 
 Mr. Clifford then read the resolutions adopted by 
 the Bar, and moved the Court that they be entered 
 upon its records, and that the Court do now adjourn. 
 
 Chief Justice SHAW responded on the part of the 
 Court as follows : 
 
 Gentlemen of the Old Colony Bar This Court, in 
 behalf of whom I now speak, do most cordially assure 
 you of their full participation in the feelings of pro- 
 found sadness and grief, which everywhere pervade 
 this great community, in view of the signal, bereave- 
 ment which we all deplore, and their sincere sym- 
 pathy in the sentiments expressed in the resolutions 
 which you have now offered. We are called upon to 
 lament the loss of an illustrious man, of an eminent 
 statesman, of a profound jurist, and eloquent advocate. 
 It seems fitting, therefore, amidst the exciting inte- 
 rests, the exacting cares, and the laborious duties, to 
 
 17
 
 130 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 which we are devoted, to pause, and listen with re- 
 verent awe, to the deep lessons of wisdom, which Pro- 
 vidence is teaching us, by an event so impressive. 
 We are thus forcibly reminded, that however illus- 
 trious any man may become for learning and wisdom, 
 that however important and necessary his life and ser- 
 vices may seem to his friends, his country, and his 
 race, to whatever height of fame and prosperity he 
 may have reached, still the time of his departure 
 comes as it comes to all, when all the attractions of 
 earth lose their lustre and their force, and we are 
 awakened to a deep conviction of the solemn realities 
 of another life, in comparison with which all the in- 
 terests of this our mortal being, seem trifling and 
 insignificant. 
 
 We are now forcibly reminded by all that we see 
 and feel, that a great man has fallen among us. Mr. 
 Webster has long been in the full view of our whole 
 community, regarded as a man of great wisdom, a 
 prudent guide and counsellor, who had the best good 
 of his country and of his race always at heart. Con- 
 spicuous alike for his commanding talents, his large 
 and comprehensive views, the purity and correctness 
 of all his great purposes, he was looked to, as one 
 who could be safely trusted in the darkest hours of 
 his country's prospects, to protect her from suffering 
 and peril, from within and from without. Mr. Web- 
 ster's whole course of public life, in which he has 
 been steadily advancing in honor and usefulness, has 
 been known and visible to the whole community; and 
 the strong and universal manifestation of grief and 
 sadness, which have everywhere followed the news of
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPREME COURT. 131 
 
 his decease, afford ample proof of the firm hold which 
 he had upon the confidence and affections of the 
 people. 
 
 As a statesman, he was equally distinguished by the 
 resources of his capacious mind, and the eminent wis- 
 dom of his counsels. In the exertion of his great 
 powers, in public affairs, no partial or sectional in- 
 terests, no private or party views could allure him 
 from the path of the general and public good. Dazzled 
 by no visionary theories, deluded by no speculative pro- 
 jects, his views were decidedly practical and attain- 
 able ; looking to the actual and various conditions, to 
 all the liberal and industrial pursuits of the whole 
 people of the Union, he was equally comprehensive in 
 his regards, and just and discriminating in his mea- 
 sures. He was ardently devoted to the support of the 
 Constitution in its integrity, because he regarded it, 
 under Providence, as the only safeguard and guaranty 
 of the Union ; and he loved the Union, because, in his 
 sober judgment, its preservation is essentially neces- 
 sary to the peace, liberty, and security, and conse- 
 quently to the best and truest interests of the whole 
 community. Peace, internal harmony, security for all 
 personal, social, and political rights, these, if we may 
 judge from his clear and often repeated declarations, 
 were, in his view, the leading object of all govern- 
 ment ; and that) practically, that government is best 
 which gives the highest encouragement to personal 
 exertion, and the largest scope to individual enterprise, 
 in every honest and laudable pursuit, which can be 
 given, consistently with a just regard and an effectual 
 security to the equal rights of all.
 
 132 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 But this is not the time or place to attempt a dis- 
 criminating or detailed view, of Mr. Webster's high 
 qualities as a statesman. He will long be remembered 
 throughout the Union, on the ocean and in the work- 
 shop, on the farm, and in every walk of industry, as 
 the defender of the Constitution, the faithful friend of 
 the Union, and the advocate of the just rights of all 
 the members of this great and growing community. 
 
 In addressing myself to a body devoted to the 
 study and practice of the law, and the administration 
 of justice, many of whom have been associated with 
 him as a professional brother and friend, and all of 
 whom have been accustomed to regard him as an 
 honor to the profession which they love, it seems more 
 fitting to allude briefly to the character of Mr. Web- 
 ster, as a jurist and an advocate. He early selected 
 the study of the law, which, when faithfully and honor- 
 ably pursued, may justly be regarded as a high and 
 honorable profession, inasmuch as it looks to the prac- 
 tical assertion of right, liberty, and justice, as its lead- 
 ing object. He soon distinguished himself for great 
 research, for large and comprehensive views of the 
 law, and of those broad principles of right and justice, 
 having their deep and immovable foundations in the 
 moral laws of our nature, which constitute the true basis 
 of all law. As soon as he entered on the career of 
 practice, he became distinguished at once, as a learned 
 jurist and an eloquent advocate. With a natural acu- 
 men and power of legal discrimination quite unsur- 
 passed, with a force of logic and power of eloquence, 
 which gave to every argument its most efficient im- 
 press, he soon attained to a rank in his profession,
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPREME COURT. 133 
 
 which elevated him to an equality with those who 
 had been previously regarded as the lights of the pro- 
 fessional firmament in this and the neighboring States, 
 and who were then held in the highest estimation for 
 professional eminence. 
 
 In one department, that of Constitutional law, he 
 was peculiarly distinguished, and gained a reputation 
 second perhaps to no one, unless that of him who 
 was so long distinguished as the head of the first ju- 
 dicial tribunal of the country. 
 
 Starting, like other students, with no extraordinary 
 external aid, and reaching the highest eminence, the 
 example of Mr. Webster may well be held up as an 
 encouragement to young men, struggling in the earlier 
 stages of a profession requiring persevering effort and 
 untiring industry. Let those who have watched the 
 dawn of his early professional reputation, the splen- 
 dor of his meridian success, and have now witnessed 
 its brilliant close, take courage, and hope on, holding 
 his virtues and his industry as^ a high example, and 
 his renown as a never-failing encouragement to pa- 
 tience and perseverance in well doing. 
 
 In these remarks, brief and hasty as they are, I 
 would not wholly overlook the example and influence 
 of Mr. Webster, as a man, a friend, a member of so- 
 ciety, and a public benefactor. Always foremost in 
 the promotion of all social institutions, for education, 
 for the improvement of mind, for the cultivation of 
 the social affections, for the improvement of taste, he 
 did much to give value and dignity, as well as grace 
 and elegance to refined society. Devoted to the cul- 
 tivation of letters, seeking in the annals of the past
 
 134 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 the examples of the wise and .good for the encourage- 
 ment and improvement of the present times, venerat- 
 ing especially the virtues and achievements of our 
 hardy ancestors, he was ever ready, with his treasures 
 of learning and his powers of eloquence, to unite with 
 others in commemoration of great events, and inte- 
 resting epochs. Wherever particular times and places 
 have been consecrated to the love of liberty and of 
 country, to the commemoration of illustrious public 
 benefactors, there was he prepared to utter the elo- 
 quent words of wisdom to listening crowds, where their 
 import would be most impressive. At Plymouth Rock, 
 at Bunker Hill, at the Monument of Washington, wher- 
 ever the wise and good assembled to commune and 
 learn wisdom from the past, his presence, and his glow- 
 ing eloquence, were not wanting. 
 
 But he is gone; a great light and glory of our 
 age has departed from our sight, not indeed until he 
 had done all that a great statesman, an illustrious 
 advocate, a humble and devout Christian, a most dis- 
 tinguished citizen and man could do, to improve and 
 benefit his age and his race, and especially, as his 
 crowning excellence, to turn their hearts and thoughts 
 from the alluring engagements and engrossing cares 
 of this transitory life, to a higher and more enduring 
 state of existence beyond the grave. In this view, it 
 is fit that we now regard him as one who has done 
 much to benefit one world, without omitting the higher 
 function of pointing the way to another. Let us be 
 grateful to a benign Providence for all the good 
 which the statesman and benefactor was able to do ; 
 and let us profit by the good examples he has given
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPREME COURT. 135 
 
 us, and the grave lessons which his life, character, 
 and death have taught us. Whilst devoting ourselves 
 faithfully, and with all our powers, to the discharge 
 of our duties, those duties which we fondly flatter 
 ourselves are high and important, and which do in- 
 deed touch the dearest earthly interests of men, and 
 of communities, let us never forget, that amidst theso, 
 as part of these, and necessary to their just perform- 
 ance, that there is one duty never to be overlooked, 
 that of a steady and constant regard, and of a fre- 
 quent and solemn reflection on the higher subjects of 
 life, death, and immortality; that, whether we live or 
 die, we may be found in the way of duty.
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 
 
 18
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL 
 COMMITTEE. 
 
 AT the meeting of the Boston Grammar School 
 Committee, on Tuesday, November 22, the following 
 resolutions were submitted by Dr. ADAMS: 
 
 Whereas, Almighty God has seen fit to remove from us, by death, 
 one whom all unite in calling " the foremost man of our country," 
 the School Committee of the city of Boston, at their first meeting, 
 after the announcement of this sad intelligence, not only would avail 
 themselves of the opportunity, but deem it their duty, to give utter- 
 ance to their feelings on this solemn occasion ; Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That while we submit with all humility to this afflict- 
 ing dispensation, we cannot but deplore for our country and the 
 world, this extinction of their brightest ornament and ablest mind. 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Daniel Webster we recognize the 
 loss of one in whom existed that rare combination of the brightest 
 intellect and the largest capacity, under the government and control 
 of moral influences ; one, in whose own language, our common school 
 system was called " that celestial and that earthly light," under 
 which the young men of our country shall come up, fitted intellect- 
 ually and morally to sustain and perpetuate our free institutions. 
 
 Resolved, That while the deep, mellow tones of that voice, which 
 have so often delighted our ears, shall be heard no more forever, 
 and the significant glance of those once piercing eyes, are now 
 dimmed in death ; yet in his own last words, " He still lives ; " yes, 
 and will live by his teachings and noble example in the mind and 
 heart of every true American, so long as the last glimmer of the
 
 140 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 light of human freedom shall continue " to linger and play on the 
 summit" of our temple of liberty. 
 
 Rev. HUBBARD WINSLOW said: 
 
 Mr. President I rise to second, most cordially, the 
 resolutions just offered. I do not propose to occupy 
 much time with remarks ; but before engaging in our 
 customary business, at this first meeting of the board 
 since the death of Mr. Webster, it becomes us to 
 pause and consecrate our first thoughts to that great 
 and solemn event. 
 
 The mournful tidings have, ere this, gone over the 
 length and breadth of the land; the entire nation is 
 now in tears. And they are neither feigned nor ordi- 
 nary tears. They come from the deepest fountain of 
 the soul, and they refuse to be dried up. The more 
 the heart seeks to be comforted, the more it refuses 
 all comfort, but such as comes only from above. 
 
 In a beautiful German fable, representing our pro- 
 genitor as weeping over the first human victim of 
 death, and exclaiming, " What now remains for me, in 
 my lamentation?" a bright cherub from the skies an- 
 swers, " Der Blick gen Himmel ! " A look to Heaven ! 
 That only remains to us to this mourning nation; 
 in the loss of its truest friend and brightest ornament. 
 That same cherub still hovers on poised wing, between 
 earth and heaven ; still he beckons us, and points 
 the eye of hope to those golden portals those ever- 
 lasting gates through which the immortal spirit of 
 the great man has just passed, into regions of uncre- 
 ated light and glory. From those imperial heights, 
 beyond the reach of mortality and change, a voice 
 came to us from him, "not dead, but gone before,"
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 141 
 
 "I still live." This, sir, is our consolation. Webster 
 still lives, and will live forever. 
 
 We should not be willing to accept the benefits 
 which he has bestowed upon us, great as they are, if 
 they must needs cost the final sacrifice of him by 
 whom they have been bestowed. But when we think 
 of him as still living, looking down from the skies 
 upon us, and contemplating the future glories of this 
 and other nations, as enhanced by his labors and his 
 undying principles, our hearts are comforted, and we 
 gratefully accept the priceless legacy he has be- 
 queathed us. 
 
 And what a legacy ! " The great principles of 
 Magna Charta, of the English Revolution, and es- 
 pecially of the American Revolution, of the English 
 language. " Well might he say " The day-spring 
 from on high has visited us; the country has been 
 called back to conscience and to duty. There is 
 no longer imminent danger of dissolution in these 
 United States. We shall live, and not die. We shall 
 live as united Americans ; and those who have sup- 
 posed they could sever us, that they could rend one 
 American heart from another, and that speculation and 
 hypothesis, that secession and metaphysics could tear 
 us asunder, will find themselves wofully mistaken." 
 
 To eulogize Daniel Webster is no part of my object. 
 It as far transcends my power as it does his neces- 
 sity. Those of us who have known him more than a 
 quarter of a century, in the various walks of public 
 and of private life, have his eulogy already deeply 
 written on our hearts. 
 
 That noble and majestic form, that colossal and
 
 142 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 classic head, those large and brilliant eyes ; that coun- 
 tenance, so benignant in smile and so terrible in frown ; 
 the tout ensemble of that entire personage, so peculiar, 
 so striking, so superior to that of any other human 
 being we have ever seen, must forever retain a place 
 in our most vivid conceptions. Viewing him merely 
 in his personal appearance, " we ne'er shall see his 
 like again." But in his mental being, he is far more 
 unlike all others. There is in it a combination of 
 grandeur and simplicity, of greatness and minuteness, 
 of strength and delicacy, which were never before so 
 perfectly blended in a human mind. His intellect 
 was as the ocean, which he so much loved, and which 
 only seemed large enough for him, on which, in fair 
 weather, the lightest skiff can float safely, and in which 
 the most deeply freighted ships of merchandise find 
 no bottom. The child could understand him and be 
 instructed by what he said, while the most profound 
 thinker saw in him a "vasty deep," which he could 
 not fathom. 
 
 When we contemplate him in the forum, carrying 
 judge and jury, and all others, with him, by argu- 
 ment, at once so simple that a child could compre- 
 hend it, and so mighty that the loftiest intellect bow- 
 ed reverently to it; when we think of him on those 
 public occasions, when mighty themes of general in- 
 terest inspired his great heart, and poured from his 
 lips in strains of surpassing pathos, sublimity, and 
 classic beauty, to the outbursting admiration of as- 
 sembled thousands; when he is present to our minds, 
 as he ever will be, in the lustrous character of ex- 
 pounder and defender of the American Constitution,
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 143 
 
 unfolding and impressing its sacred lessons of eternal 
 obligations, and thus cementing the bonds of the Na- 
 tional Union; when we regard him as the civilian, 
 the diplomatist, the statesman, defining rights and 
 duties, establishing laws of reciprocity, and settling 
 great principles, to be henceforth recognized by all 
 civilized communities and nations, and doing all with a 
 depth and reach of wisdom that never failed ; when we 
 behold him fighting the nation's battles, securing its 
 victories, protecting its rights and its honors, unfurl- 
 ing its triumphant stripes and stars over all seas, by 
 the mere power of his intellect, and without shedding 
 a drop of the people's blood, or wasting an ounce of 
 their treasure ; and then, when, from the high seats 
 of official eminence, we follow him to the farm, the 
 neighborhood, the fireside, and ponder those tender 
 graces of affection which made him so dear to his 
 family, servants, workmen, neighbors, and all who 
 knew him, which allowed no creature, human or 
 animal, to suffer, when he could afford relief, and 
 which seemed to inspire the very cattle upon his 
 grounds with a sentiment of admiration and love for 
 their owner; and when, especially, we see him as a 
 Christian, bowing his great mind, with the simplicity 
 of a child, to the teachings of Jesus Christ, surren- 
 dering himself cordially to that faith which looks for 
 honor, glory, and immortality in Heaven, and resign- 
 ing all that was mortal in a way that made death an 
 apotheosis rather than a dissolution; I say, as he 
 rises before us, in all these various aspects and rela- 
 tions, we are constrained to acknowledge that he was 
 a man by himself, and that to have been privileged
 
 144 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 to live in the same age, the same country, the same 
 community with him, imposes on us a debt of no or- 
 dinary gratitude. Henceforth, the age, and the country 
 that gave him birth, will be illustrious in the annals 
 of time. 
 
 But, Sir, it was with another view that I rose to 
 speak. We meet here as the friends and guardians 
 of education. To us are intrusted, especially, the in- 
 terests of our common and our public schools. It 
 was the common school system to which we are here 
 officially devoted, and which is the crowning glory of 
 this country, that gave Daniel Webster to this world. 
 But for this, that gigantic intellect had slumbered, 
 unknowing and unknown, with those granite rocks 
 that gave him birth. It is this system of common 
 schools spreading over the land, all-searching and 
 pervading, that develops the hidden treasures of the 
 mind, and often from the most obscure retreats calls 
 forth to life and power those mighty intellects which 
 become the ornament of letters, the pride of science, 
 the defence of religion, and the pillars of State. 
 
 And, Sir, the debt which that great man owed to 
 the school system of this country, he has richly paid. 
 The man never lived who thought more highly of their 
 importance, and did more to inspirit and enrich them. 
 As a friend of his was once riding with him through 
 his native State, and was speaking of the dangers 
 and prospects of our country, " There," said Mr. Web- 
 ster, pointing to an humble school-house, and to a 
 small church near it, " is the foundation of all our 
 hopes, both for the present and the future. It is to 
 the religion and the schools which our fathers plant-
 
 PROCEEDINGS OP THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 145 
 
 ed, that our Republic owes its existence ; without them 
 there can be no rational liberty. So long as these 
 are fostered, our institutions are safe ; whenever they 
 shall be neglected, the knell of republicanism, will be 
 tolled." 
 
 Such sentiments were perpetually beaming out in 
 all his private conversations and public speeches in 
 reference to the destinies of our nation. " I have seen," 
 said he, " and others of my age have seen, the church 
 and the school-house rise and stand in the very centre 
 of the forest, and seen them resorted to in the midst 
 of winter snows. And when these things lie at the 
 foundation and commencement of society; where the 
 worship of God, the observance of morals, and the 
 culture of the human mind, are springs of action with 
 those who take hold of the original forest, to subdue 
 it by strong arms and strong muscles, there, depend 
 upon it, the people never fail. Everywhere, every- 
 tvhere, on her hills and rivers, are these school-houses. 
 The school-house ; who shall speak of that throughout 
 New England, as it ought to be spoken of? Who 
 shall speak, in proper language, of the wisdom, and 
 foresight, and benevolence, and sagacity of our fore- 
 fathers, in establishing a general system of public in- 
 struction as a great public police for the benefit of 
 the whole, as a business in which all are interested ! 
 The world had previously seen nothing like it, al- 
 though some parts of the world have since copied 
 from it." 
 
 Henceforth, sir, that great man will be intimately 
 associated with the educational systems of our coun- 
 try. The Bar, the Forum, the Senate, the Council- 
 
 19
 
 146 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Chamber, shall not exclusively claim it ; it shall be 
 known, and honored, and loved, from sea to sea, by 
 all the friends of education, as the name of the most 
 illustrious champion of their cause. Henceforth, all 
 who toil in the arduous work of education shall know 
 that the blessing of Daniel Webster is upon them. 
 They are engaging in the very work which he be- 
 lieved to be, before all others, essential to our welfare 
 as individuals, and to our safety as a nation. It was 
 not merely the college, the higher halls of science, 
 that he, by his matchless eloquence, defended; the 
 common school, even the infant school, engaged his 
 attention and his heart, and called forth his most im- 
 passioned commendation. His standing motto was, 
 Solem e mundo tollwd, qui scientiam e vita tollinit. 
 
 But, sir, he has done more than merely to commend 
 our school system; he has himself engaged, personally, 
 in the work of teaching, and has pronounced the time 
 thus spent the most profitable portion of his life. 
 We have thus not only his counsel to guide, but his 
 example to inspirit us. 
 
 Nor is this all ; it is, indeed, the least part. He 
 has poured the measureless wealth of his own intel- 
 lect into all the schools and colleges of the land. 
 There is scarcely a child in America, twelve years old, 
 whose mind has not been enriched by his speeches 
 and orations. Those chaste and massive sentences, 
 those simple and resistless arguments, those bold and 
 brilliant flashes of imagination, those notes of thun- 
 dering, subduing, awful eloquence, those impassioned 
 appeals to patriotism, have found their way to every 
 school-boy's heart, and have begun to mould the men- 
 tal character of the rising race.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 147 
 
 Hence the enthusiasm which all our youth feel in 
 regard to Daniel Webster. They know little, and 
 care less, for party politics. They have not yet en- 
 tered the arena of political strife; but they have 
 caught the fire of that mighty spirit's eloquence, they 
 feel the benign influence of a lofty mind working upon 
 theirs; and the same magic impulse which prompts 
 them to rise higher in mental excellence, prompts 
 them to do honor to their great master. 
 
 Their minds have become so much moulded and in- 
 spired by his, that they instinctively love and honor 
 him. His speeches are destined to do more, in my 
 opinion, to promote the great objects of education, to 
 form correct habits of thinking and speaking, and to 
 put the rising American race in possession of a chas- 
 tened, eloquent, powerful literature, than any other 
 instrumentality of the nineteenth century. 
 
 But, sir, I did not intend to say so much. My 
 only apology is, that I could not say less. While 
 we pause to meditate upon our irreparable loss, let us 
 not forget that we have other and higher duties, and 
 duties which time will not wait for us to perform. 
 
 Omnes eodem cogimur; omnium 
 Versatur urna, serius ocyus 
 Sors exitura, et nos seternum 
 Exilium impositura cymbae. 
 
 No, sir; it is not to eternal exile, as the heathen 
 poet says, that we are destined. If faithful to those 
 higher duties, we may look, in the light of Christian 
 faith, to that same celestial home of eternal friend- 
 ship and glory, into which our illustrious friend has 
 entered before us. The dying scene of that immortal
 
 148 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 man! Who of us does not wish that his last end 
 may be like his ? Socrates died like a philosopher ; 
 Webster, like a Christian. His death was the crown- 
 ing glory of a glorious life. He wanted no Charon's 
 boat to float him over the dark wave to the land of 
 eternal exile ; a convoy of shining angels were in 
 attendance ; and as his calm, piercing gaze shot up 
 the long bright track in which they were to conduct 
 him, he exclaimed, amid his last distinct utterances 
 on earth : " This day I shall be in life, in ylory, in 
 blessedness" Let us, then, with such examples before 
 us, gird up our minds to duty, and be faithful to our 
 high mission. 
 
 Mr. STEVENSON addressed the Board as follows : 
 I concur with the gentleman who has just spoken, 
 as to the propriety of the action which is proposed, 
 and do not doubt that every member of the Board 
 will concur with him. 
 
 We are members of a sorrow-stricken community. 
 It is no ordinary public grief which has so taken 
 possession of the minds of men; but each feels as he 
 would feel if a valuable member of his own household 
 had been taken away from his sight forever. The 
 very depths of feeling have been sounded. Ever since 
 the event which we mourn, a political Sabbath has 
 prevailed. The all-pervading feeling is taking every 
 proper form of expression. Perhaps no more impres- 
 sive scene was ever witnessed than that which exhi- 
 bited itself in Faneuil Hall on Wednesday last. Grief 
 had called together a multitude of men. The first 
 time that that hall had ever been shrouded in the
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 149 
 
 drapery of mourning, he himself had stood there to 
 speak of those over whom had passed that mysterious 
 change which separates the mortal from the immortal ; 
 and then the fact that all that was mortal of himself 
 was at rest, while his majestic spirit was in the pre- 
 sence of Almighty God, had filled the same place. 
 
 The beautiful eloquence of gifted orators could 
 move that audience only to tears; and thousands of 
 strong men stood there and wept. 
 
 The echoes of the temple, which had been accus- 
 tomed to be awakened into a tumult at the bare 
 whisper of his name, slept in the silence of sadness. 
 It could not but be so. For all realized what a voice 
 was left when his place on earth was unoccupied, and 
 all knew that, in many respects, that place must re- 
 main unoccupied. 
 
 For how true it is, that there is not with us, or of 
 us, any other man, for whose judgment all all can 
 look, as they have been accustomed to look for his, 
 whenever there has presented itself any new question 
 affecting the interests, or the honor, or the peace, or 
 the progress of this great nation. Whether we had 
 realized it before or not, we now felt how we had 
 looked for and waited for that judgment. 
 
 Now, when we need his counsels, as we shall, they 
 will no longer be given to us in the living words, 
 that have burnt their influences into our very convic- 
 tions, but we must look for them in the storehouses 
 of our memories, and in the recorded pages of his 
 wisdom. He has gone from the midst of us, but not 
 without having performed the full mission of a man. 
 
 The teacher rests from his labors. The results of
 
 150 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 those labors are an invaluable legacy to each of us. 
 How true it is that he who would comprehend the 
 philosophy of, or even appreciate the full value of, 
 the institutions under which this people have been 
 trying the experiment of self-government, must read 
 and study his expositions of them, or the lesson will 
 not be learned. Read his works, and feel what a 
 blessing civil and religious liberty is. Read them, 
 and feel what a blessing it is to live under a govern- 
 ment of laws rather than under a government of men. 
 Read them; and if, which God forbid, the obligations 
 of the Constitution of your country hang loosely on 
 you, rivet them with his thoughts. 
 
 The form which we loved to meet has gone from, 
 us forever. Gratitude will provide a monument. It 
 will not be so imperishable as his thoughts; it will 
 not be so enduring as the lessons he has taught; but 
 it will be a shrine, before which we and our children, 
 and our children's children may bow, as - before an 
 altar, to civil and religious freedom. 
 
 May we profit by the example which he has left 
 to us, of a firm faith, a deep devotion, an unfaltering 
 trust, a pure love towards the Father of his spirit. 
 We will make an application, other than that which 
 he probably intended, still a truthful one, of the last 
 words which fell from his mortal lips, so soon to be 
 sealed by the angel, "I still live." That assurance 
 was not obliterated when that seal was fixed. His 
 spirit is God's. His fame is ours. His works will 
 praise him; our words cannot.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 151 
 
 Mr. DERBY followed, and said: 
 
 Mr. President I rise to sustain these resolutions. 
 I cannot hope to add force to what has been so elo- 
 quently said by the gentleman who preceded me, but 
 a high functionary of the Union has died the most 
 distinguished citizen of our State has breathed his 
 last our City Councils have given public expression 
 to their griefs, and I feel it to be our duty to pass 
 these resolutions and adjourn. 
 
 It has been my privilege to know Mr. Webster 
 from childhood. I knew him when at school in New 
 Hampshire. I subsequently studied three years in 
 his office, and I have cherished his acquaintance until 
 his death. I can bear testimony to the giant grasp 
 of his intellect, for I have often witnessed its exer- 
 tion. I can speak of his herculean powers, not from 
 report alone, but from personal experience, for I have 
 lived to meet him in the forum, and have four times 
 felt the weight and almost resistless powers of his ar- 
 guments. Let me add my humble testimony to the 
 colossal greatness of his intellect. 
 
 There are, however, traits of character deeply im- 
 pressed on my memory, for which I reverence him as 
 much as for his intellect. Amid the strife of the fo- 
 rum he preserved the freshness of his feelings and 
 reflections. Some men, in their devotion to one great 
 idea, become callous to those affections, but it was 
 not so with Mr. Webster. I can remember well the 
 loss of his partner, Mr. Bliss. He died in the prime 
 of life, and in the flush of success. I recall the 
 intense solicitude of Mr. Webster; how he paced his 
 office all day in silence, absorbed in grief, while we
 
 152 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 looked for the melancholy event. Nor shall I ever 
 forget his devotion to his first wife, when arrested by 
 sickness at New York. Mr. Webster had achieved a 
 name in the Supreme Court. He was retained in 
 nearly all the important cases at Washington. The 
 Court was about to open, fortune and honor were be- 
 fore him. He gave up his retainers, he sacrificed his 
 prospects for years. Wealth and advancement had no 
 attractions to draw him from the couch of his wife ; 
 he lingered there for months to receive the last sigh 
 of the partner of his bosom. 
 
 We meet in this hall, however, as the guardians of 
 education; let us cherish the remembrance that he 
 has, in his addresses, rendered service to the cause. 
 He has ever pointed to the school-house as the ark 
 of our safety. His giant efforts are embalmed in our 
 school-books, enshrined with the speeches of Demos- 
 thenes and Cicero, Burke, Sheridan, and Chatham, to 
 animate and inspire the youth of our country. 
 
 He was himself a bright exemplar of the power of 
 education. Let us trace him from his humble home 
 in the wilds of New Hampshire ; let us imagine him 
 standing beside his father, and recall his interview in 
 the field, with a member of Congress, and the words 
 of that noble father when he said, " that man is in 
 Congress because he had an education, and I might 
 have filled his place could I have had the benefit of a 
 school. You shall be educated." Let us follow him 
 from the labors of the farm and the menial offices of 
 the inn, to the humble school of Master Tappan, to 
 the fireside of the village clergyman, to Exeter and 
 to Dartmouth. Let us observe him enter the bleak
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 153 
 
 school-house, through the snow of a New Hampshire 
 winter, with his breath freezing upon his collar, to 
 aid the humble means of his parent by his ill-paid 
 labors as a teacher. Let us follow him to the Aca- 
 demy, where he teaches by day and copies deeds by 
 night, while he educates his brother, and strives to 
 
 O 7 / 
 
 study his profession. Let us view him in the Short 
 Street School, rousing the genius of Everett. Let us 
 accompany him to the triumphs of the Bar and the 
 Senate, until we leave him Secretary of State. Edu- 
 cation has lifted him from the dust ; from turning the 
 sods of the valley, to guide the destinies of nations, to 
 exert a mighty influence over the civilized world. Is 
 not his whole career illustrative of the power of edu- 
 cation? Is it not a noble incentive to the master in 
 his humble toils, to the ambitious youth struggling 
 with adversity ? And does it not attest the importance 
 of that system of schools which we meet here to pro- 
 mote, a system so rapidly diffusing itself over the 
 Union? Should every million we invest, produce but 
 one Webster, would it not be well invested? 
 
 The old ballad of Chevy Chase recites that, when 
 the King of Scotland was told of the death of Doug- 
 las, he replied that he had no warriors left like him; 
 although the King of England, when mourning for his 
 Percy's death, could replace him with fifty more. 
 Like Scotland's King, we mourn our Douglas dead ; 
 more than England's King, we now mourn our match- 
 less Percy; but the system of education which has 
 given us one Webster, will eventually give us more. 
 There is a wide domain of talent to be cultivated; 
 rich material is in store for us. It shall not be 
 wasted. 20
 
 154 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Through the dim vista of the future, I see, under 
 the electric power of education, other Websters rise 
 from their obscurity to guide the councils, and mould 
 the destinies of our nation. 
 
 Full many a gem of purest ray serene, 
 The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear. 
 
 The cavern must be explored. The precious stones 
 must be extracted and sent forth, radiant and spark- 
 ling, to adorn the high places of the nation. In honor- 
 ing Webster, we show our respect for education. We 
 do but participate also in the grief of a nation. The 
 solemn bell has tolled his requiem from spire to spire, 
 city to city, until its murmurs are lost in the surges 
 of the Pacific. 
 
 His loss has been deplored by eloquent voices still 
 ringing from thousands of pulpits. 
 
 The thunder of cannon has proclaimed the nation's 
 grief from shore to shore, fit memento of him whose 
 lightning has flashed in the Senate Chamber, and 
 whose thunder has rolled in the Forum. 
 
 Even nature, in her sombre aspect, seems to mourn 
 his loss. The groves of Franklin and of Marshfield 
 sigh at his departure ; and may we not apply to the 
 orator and lover of nature, as well as to the poet> 
 those beautiful lines of Scott 
 
 Call it not vain, they do not err, 
 
 Who say, that when the Poet dies, 
 Mute Nature mourns her worshipper, 
 
 And celebrates his obsequies ; 
 Who say tall cliff, and cavern lone, 
 For the departed Bard make moan ; 
 That mountains weep in crystal rill ;
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 155 
 
 That flowers in tears of balm distil ; 
 Through his loved groves, that breezes sigh, 
 And oaks, in deeper groan, reply; 
 And Ocean tells its rushing wave 
 To murmur dirges round his grave. 
 
 The resolutions were passed by a unanimous vote.
 
 PROCEEDINGS AND RESOLUTIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 VARIOUS ASSOCIATIONS.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WEBSTER 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 A MEETING of the Webster Executive Committee 
 was held on Monday evening, October 25, General J. 
 S. Tyler in the chair. Some discussion was had as 
 to the course of duty devolved upon the Club by 
 the death of Mr. Webster, and a committee of seven 
 persons was raised to consider the subject and report 
 resolutions. 
 
 At an adjourned meeting on Tuesday evening, Oc- 
 tober 26, Mr. WINSLOW, from the Committee of seven 
 appointed on Monday evening, submitted the follow- 
 ing resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That while overwhelmed with grief by the death of 
 our illustrious statesman and patriot, we would yet bow submis- 
 sively to the will of Him who does all things well. 
 
 Resolved, That our sorrow is mingled with deep and earnest 
 gratitude that Daniel Webster was given to this nation, and that 
 his life and teachings have impressed upon it lessons of lofty wis- 
 dom and patriotism, which will not be forgotten. 
 
 Resolved, That as his bereaved companion and other family re- 
 latives mourn not alone, but the whole nation mourns with them, 
 it is our fervent prayer that they may ever receive the sustaining
 
 160 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 sympathies and benedictions of all the people of the land, as the 
 only return which can now be offered for a debt of gratitude that 
 can never be paid. 
 
 Resolved, That as a mark of respect for the great man, whose 
 death we mourn, this convention recommend to the friends of the 
 deceased to wear a badge of crape on the left arm for thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That as some special tribute is due from us to those 
 great national principles maintained and defended by Mr. Webster 
 while he lived, and dear to him in death, in addition to uniting 
 most cordially in all the civic honors paid to him, we will also 
 unite in a celebration that shall distinctly recognize and set forth 
 those principles, in an eulogy to be delivered by an orator of our 
 own selection, and that we invite our friends in all parts of the 
 Commonwealth to join with us in said celebration. 
 
 Resolved, That be a committee to make all necessary 
 
 arrangements to carry the above resolutions into effect ; to select 
 the orator, appoint the time and place, and report to the Execu- 
 tive Committee at an early day. 
 
 The resolutions were adopted, and Messrs. C. A. 
 White, C. Torrey, and T. Wiley were appointed as 
 the Committee called for in the last resolve.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WHIG WARD AND 
 COUNTY CONVENTION. 
 
 A MEETING of the Whig Ward and County Conven- 
 tion was held on the evening of October 29, and a 
 series of appropriate resolutions were adopted. FARN- 
 IIAM PLUMMER, Esq., in introducing the resolutions, 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 Some five days have elapsed since those startling 
 minute-guns, booming forth upon a bright and calm 
 Sabbath morning, announced to the citizens of Bos- 
 ton and its vicinity the painful fact that the great 
 heart of that eminent statesman and illustrious fel- 
 low-citizen, Daniel Webster, had forever ceased its 
 pulsations. The interval has been occupied by the 
 readiest writers and the ablest speakers, and our lan- 
 guage has been found inadequate to express the deep 
 feeling and emotion which are felt not only by the 
 people of Boston, but also by the whole nation. The 
 Committee have, therefore, approached the subject with 
 great diffidence. They have embodied a few facts in 
 simple words, and have only to add a hope that they 
 may be unanimously adopted. 
 21
 
 162 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Resolved, That this Convention has heard with deep and poig- 
 nant grief of the decease of our illustrious fellow-citizen, the Honor- 
 able Daniel Webster, and that, remembering his services as Repre- 
 sentative of this city in Congress as a Senator of our beloved 
 Commonwealth in the Senate of the United States, and as on two 
 occasions Secretary of State of the United States we feel the 
 truth so beautifully expressed by President Fillmore, that his 
 fame belongs to America, and the admiration of it to all man- 
 kind. 
 
 Resolved, That as members of the Whig party, of which he 
 was through life the ablest representative, and in the advance- 
 ment of whose doctrines and policy he made some of his noblest 
 efforts, we feel the irreparable loss our country has sustained; 
 but that, above and beyond all party considerations, as American 
 citizens, as constituent parts of this great and glorious Union, we 
 recall with pride his patriotism, bounded by no State lines, know- 
 ing no North, no South, no East, no West; his care, his solicitude, 
 and his unremitting labor for the perpetuation and aggrandizement 
 of our common country, and for the preservation of that Consti- 
 tution under whose blessings, by the aid of a kind Providence, 
 we hope ourselves and our posterity may live a great, a happy, 
 and above all a united people. 
 
 Resolved, That while his long and varied life has been but one 
 series of victories achieved and triumphs gained for his State, 
 his Country, and for Constitutional Liberty everywhere, we can 
 but feel, as friends of the Christian Religion, that nothing was 
 wanting to the perfection of such a life, but such an ending of 
 it; and that the brilliancy of his career is and could be equalled 
 only by the splendor and beauty of its close. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, signed by the Pre- 
 sident and Secretary of this Convention, be transmitted to the 
 family of Mr. Webster, in token of our respect for his name, and 
 of our condolence in this season of their affliction.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF GRANITE CLUB, NO. 1. 
 
 ON Monday evening, October 25, a special meeting 
 of the Granite club, No. 1, was held. The attendance 
 was very large. Vice-President ORCUTT, of Chelsea, 
 presided. The meeting was called for the purpose of 
 making some demonstration of respect to the memory 
 of Daniel Webster. Hon. AARON HOBART, in a few 
 able and appropriate remarks, offered the following 
 resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That there are occasions, when, without surrendering 
 principles or intermitting duties, it is becoming, even in the midst 
 of a great canvass for political power in the nation, to forget that 
 we are partisans, and remember only that all are citizens of one 
 common country. 
 
 Resolved, That on no occasion has this reflection become so 
 impressive as by the death of Daniel Webster; of whom it can 
 be said with emphatic truth, that if he belonged to any party or 
 to any part of the Union, while living, his memory and his his- 
 tory belong to his country, to the whole Union, and to the world. 
 
 Resolved, That the democratic party, forgetting wherein they 
 differed, will ever hold in grateful remembrance that great qual- 
 ity of the great mind of Daniel Webster, which led him, in 
 almost every national crisis, to adhere to the Union with a patri- 
 otism that could not be bounded by party limits, and with a 
 devotion to that Union equalled only by the eloquence with which 
 he enforced its binding obligations upon all sections of the coun-
 
 164 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 try ; that they will look for no spots on the sun of his glorious 
 fame, while they can see shining there to light posterity his 
 manly vindication of popular government and independence in 
 Greece, South America, and Hungary, against the dogmas of the 
 "Holy Allies" and despots of Europe, his early development of 
 the great democratic principles of free trade and solid currency, 
 and his noble championship of the Constitution in 1830 and 1850, 
 for the supremacy of the laws and the integrity of the Union. 
 
 Resolved, That in the great lights in which he will be viewed 
 hereafter, he will be regarded by all men, who honor genius and 
 intellect, and noble thoughts and manly acts, as a splendid model 
 of the character developed under our Republican institutions, and 
 an illustrious instance of the power of character thus developed, 
 to defend that Union upon which depend all Republican insti- 
 tutions on this Continent, and all hope of their organization in 
 any other portion of the globe. 
 
 Resolved, That the last words of the dying statesman, " I still 
 live" spoke not only of that immortality beyond earth, in which 
 he held a confiding faith, but will forever be true and full of 
 meaning among men ; for while the Union lives, it will be said 
 of him, as he himself said of the illustrious dead, JEFFERSON 
 and ADAMS, when pronouncing their eulogy in Faneuil Hall, 
 "His body is buried in peace, but his name liveth evermore." 
 
 Resolved, That it is honorable to human nature to find, on occa- 
 sions of the decease of eminent statesmen, the concurrence of all 
 political parties in doing honor to their memories ; and in this 
 spirit, and with full hearts, we lay our offerings of profound grief, 
 respect, and admiration upon the tomb of Daniel "Webster; re- 
 joicing, nevertheless, that in answer to his own fervent prayer 
 of patriotic devotion, when death did come, God has granted, 
 " that when his eyes were turned to behold for the last time the 
 sun in heaven, they saw him shining (and with well founded 
 faith that he would so shine for all generations to come), on our 
 glorious Union, with the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now 
 known and honored throughout the earth, still full high, advanced 
 and advancing, not a single star obscured, not a single stripe erased, 
 and still bearing for its motto, everywhere spread all over, in 
 characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they
 
 PROCEEDINGS OP GRANITE CLUB, NO. 1. 165 
 
 float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under 
 the heavens, that sentiment, dear to every true American, " LI- 
 BERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARA- 
 BLE." 
 
 J. HARDY PRINCE, Esq., paid a most glowing tribute 
 to the memory of Mr. Webster, in a speech of great 
 ability and eloquence, followed by J. HARRIS SMITH, 
 Esq., who advocated the passage of the resolutions. 
 The question upon the resolutions was then taken, 
 and they passed unanimously.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WEBSTER 
 UNDER-VOTERS. 
 
 THE Webster Under-Voters of this city met on 
 Tuesday evening, October 26, to take suitable mea- 
 sures for a tribute to the memory of Daniel Webster. 
 ARTHUR J. G. SOWDON presided. The meeting was 
 very large, and the proceedings were characterized 
 by that order and propriety so befitting the occa- 
 sion, the place, and the young gentlemen themselves. 
 
 The following resolutions were offered by Mr. 
 EAYRES, and unanimously adopted : 
 
 Whereas, Through the dispensation of an all-wise Providence, 
 we have been called upon to mourn the loss of that great states- 
 man, patriot, and Christian, Daniel Webster, who has ever been to 
 us from our earliest childhood the synonyme of all that is great 
 and good in man around whom we have so often delighted to 
 gather as around a kind of parent to catch the words of wisdom 
 and instruction which fell from his lips ; whose strains of magic 
 eloquence are to us as household words ; whose lofty sentiments of 
 patriotism have sunk so deep into our hearts that time can never 
 erase them; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That in the intense grief and heartfelt sorrow which 
 now pervade the country at the death of Daniel Webster, the 
 Young Men of Boston would mingle their tears and join their sor-
 
 168 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 rows, feeling that the loss -which they have sustained is only ex- 
 ceeded by that \vhich their country is compelled to mourn. 
 
 Resolved, That by the death of Daniel Webster, the brightest 
 star in the glorious constellation of master spirits which has so long 
 lighted up the pathway of human liberty through the world, has 
 set forever; and the young men of Boston, living in the immediate 
 vicinity of Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Plymouth breathing in 
 the spirit of patriotism with the very breath we draw ; cannot but feel 
 the most poignant grief at the irreparable loss which their country, 
 the cause of liberty and republican institutions, have sustained. 
 
 Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the family and friends 
 of the illustrious deceased, in this their afflicting bereavement, and 
 would assure them that the young men of Boston will ever entertain 
 the liveliest emotions of gratitude for the services of him who was 
 the defender of the Constitution and the preserver of our liberties. 
 
 Resolved, That in consideration of the great loss which has 
 fallen upon the world at large, our country, and ourselves individu- 
 ally, the members of this Club will wear the usual badge of 
 mourning on the left arm for a period of thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed, to consti- 
 tute with the government of the Club a Committee of Arrange- 
 ments, to take such further measures as they may deem proper, to 
 give expression to the sad feelings of this Club. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to Mrs. 
 Webster. 
 
 Addresses were made by Messrs. SOWDON, BATES, 
 and EAYRES.
 
 MEETING OF THE BOSTON MERCHANTS. 
 
 THE Merchants of Boston met on Monday afternoon, 
 October 25, at the Merchants' Exchange Reading 
 Room, to take such measures as might be deemed 
 appropriate, in view of the death of Daniel Webster, 
 whose life was one long devotion to the mercantile 
 interests of Boston. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by GEORGE B. UP- 
 TON, Esq., and organized by the choice of Hon. WIL- 
 LIAM APPLETON, as President, who, on taking the chair, 
 made a few touching and eloquent remarks upon the 
 life, services, and death of Mr. Webster. 
 
 J. THOMAS STEVENSON, Esq., then proceeded to ad- 
 dress the meeting as follows: 
 
 Gentlemen The occasion of this meeting is elo- 
 quently told in the silent countenances of those who 
 compose it, and calls for no louder utterance. Cer- 
 tainly no hurried words could either add to, or sub- 
 due the universal sorrow, whose shadows are resting 
 upon the hearts of those who realize that the event 
 of yesterday has removed from them a friend, a 
 counsellor, a guide, a benefactor, a patriot. 
 
 I am requested to say to you, that the purpose 
 
 22
 
 170 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 for which we have been called together, is the ap- 
 pointment of a committee with power to arrange for 
 such testimonial on the part of the merchants of Bos- 
 ton as that event prompts. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson offered the following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed by the Chair, 
 to confer with any other committees that may be chosen by other 
 bodies of our citizens, on the subject of a testimonial to the ser- 
 vices of Daniel Webster. 
 
 The Chair appointed the following gentlemen as the 
 Committee, viz. : Messrs. Nathan Appleton, John T. 
 Heard, Thomas B. Curtis, James K. Mills, A. W. Thax- 
 ter, Jr., Enoch Train, Levi Dowley, Thomas Gray. 
 
 The meeting was then dissolved.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF BROKERS. 
 
 AT the regular meeting of the Board of Brokers 
 held on Monday, October 25, the following resolu- 
 tions were unanimously passed : 
 
 Whereas, by the dispensation of Divine Providence we are 
 called to mourn the death of our illustrious fellow-citizen, Daniel 
 Webster ; 
 
 Resolved, That we lament the loss of this great Statesman and 
 Patriot, the intelligence of whose death has cast a cloud of sor- 
 row over the whole community. 
 
 Resolved, As a mark of respect, the Board do now adjourn. 
 
 J. J. SOLEY, Secretary.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MERCANTILE 
 LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 
 
 AT a special meeting of the Board of Directors of 
 the Mercantile Library Association of Boston, held on 
 Monday evening, October 25, 1852, the following reso- 
 lution, submitted by Mr. JAMES A. WOOLSON, was una- 
 nimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, In consequence of the intelligence we have received 
 of the death of the Honorable Daniel Webster, Secretary of State of 
 the United States, the President of this Association be requested 
 to call a special meeting of the members, to take place on Wednes- 
 day evening, the 27th instant, that measures may be taken to mani- 
 fest our deep regret at the loss the nation has sustained in the 
 death of this great American Statesman. 
 
 A very large meeting of the members of this Asso- 
 ciation was held in their rooms Wednesday evening, 
 October 27. Appropriate remarks were made by 
 GEORGE S. BLANCHARD, the President, and speeches 
 were made by L. H. TASKER, CHARLES G. CHASE, and 
 HENRY BLANCHARD. The following resolutions, offered 
 by JOHN STETSON, were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the members of this Association have heard with 
 deep grief the afflicting intelligence of the death of Mr. Webster :
 
 174 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 an event which bereaves the country of its ablest and most com- 
 prehensive statesman; the Bar of its most distinguished leader; 
 the great interests of peace, commerce, and union, of their noblest 
 champion and the whole nation of the grandest exemplar of 
 those free institutions to whose defence his long and illustrious life 
 was devoted. 
 
 Resolved, That in this event, we recognize the departure of a 
 colossal mind, whose faculties, rare in their separate excellencies, 
 and rarer still in their harmonious combination, have stamped on 
 American history, legislation, and eloquence, the massive impress 
 of their wisdom and power ; a mind which in precision, depth, fer- 
 vor, amplitude, and force, in closeness and clearness of statement, 
 rigor of reasoning, and wide-reaching grasp of principles, and in the 
 greatness and grandeur of soul which accompanied its most practi- 
 cal application to affairs, had no rival, and has left no successor, 
 though "it still lives" in the imperishable records of its ample 
 and majestic wisdom. 
 
 Resolved, That while the death of such a man is so heavy a 
 calamity to the nation as to make all public reference to private 
 sorrow almost out of place, gratitude compels us to acknowledge 
 that while we fully sympathize in the wide-spread sense of national 
 loss, we have also to mourn a valuable friend and counsellor, to 
 whom the Association is indebted for many important favors and 
 benefits. 
 
 Resolved, That this Association will unite in any public solemni- 
 ties which may take place under the auspices of the City Authori- 
 ties ; and the Board of Directors be requested to make all required 
 arrangements for that purpose. 
 
 Subsequently Mr. CHARLES H. ALLEN was elected 
 Chief Marshal of the Association on the occasion of 
 the Funeral Solemnities.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MECHANIC APPREN- 
 TICES LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 
 
 THE Mechanic Apprentices Library Association held 
 a special meeting on Wednesday evening, October 
 27, and the following resolutions were unanimously 
 adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That our country has sustained an irreparable loss. 
 That, in common with the inhabitants thereof, we mingle our heart- 
 felt tears of sympathy and consolation with his bereaved family, 
 and with the nation, with whose history his life has been so long 
 interwoven. 
 
 Resolved, That the honesty of purpose and strict integrity with 
 which he has sustained himself as a statesman and patriot, and 
 the unwavering patriotism which he has ever manifested in the sup- 
 port of the Constitution, will render his name immortal ; and in 
 the hearts of the people he will "still live," after all that is mortal 
 is no more, and when the monuments which eulogize his memory 
 shall have crumbled to the dust. 
 
 Resolved, That the event of his death fills us all with feelings of 
 unfeigned sadness ; and, as a token of our respect to his memory, we 
 clothe our rooms in the habiliments of mourning, and that a com- 
 mittee of five be appointed to carry the above into effect.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 
 OF THE CINCINNATI. 
 
 AT a meeting of the Massachusetts Society of the 
 Cincinnati, duly convened by the President of the 
 same, the Hon. Robert G. Shaw, in Boston, October 
 26, 1852, for the purpose of taking measures to mani- 
 fest a proper tribute of respect to the memory of the 
 late Daniel Webster, an honorary member of said 
 society ; 
 
 Voted, That Eobert G. Shaw, the Kev. Mr. Baury, and Adams 
 Bailey, be a committee to take into consideration what measures 
 should be adopted; and draft such resolutions of condolence with 
 the family of the late Daniel Webster as shall be deemed most 
 proper. 
 
 Voted, That the members of this Society be requested to wear 
 crape on the left arm for thirty days as a testimonial of respect for 
 their lately deceased honorary member, Daniel Webster. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting, held November 4th, the 
 foregoing committee submitted the following resolu- 
 tions which were unanimously adopted : 
 
 When a nation is in tears, mourning under the bereaving stroke 
 of Divine Providence, which has taken from them, by death, one of 
 the most gifted of her sons ; eminent for wisdom, and patriotism, and 
 virtue; who, like the Father of the Republic, knew no North,
 
 178 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 or South, East or West, but devoted himself alike, with all the 
 powers and faculties of his noble and expansive mind, to the pro- 
 motion of his country's honor, and his country's welfare ; under 
 such a bereavement, what remains, to soothe the anguish thus occa- 
 sioned, while bowing in devout submission to the good pleasure of 
 him who does not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men, 
 but to muse on departed worth and greatness, whereby is elicited 
 the unfeigned tribute of respect and veneration for his name, and 
 his memory. Therefore 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the Massachusetts Society of 
 the Cincinnati, will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of the 
 invaluable services rendered, through a series of years, and during 
 some of the most critical periods of the Republic's history, by their 
 late Honorary member, Daniel Webster, in the national legislature, 
 and more recently in the cabinet councils of the General Govern- 
 ment of the United States, contributing, in an eminent degree, to 
 the peace and safety, honor and prosperity of the nation, no less 
 than to the preservation and permanence of the Union under the 
 Federal Constitution. 
 
 Resolved, That while the members of this Society mourn, together 
 with their fellow-citizens through the length and breadth of the 
 land, the impressive bereavement which fills all hearts with sorrow, 
 they most gratefully acknowledge the superintending Providence 
 of God, in providing for the American people a succession of dis- 
 tinguished statesmen and ardent patriots, who have perpetuated in 
 their purity and integrity, principles promulgated by the immortal 
 Washington, and which the illustrious Webster most ably main- 
 tained and eloquently defended to his last beating pulse. 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the Massachusetts Society of the 
 Cincinnati, in giving utterance to their sense of the severe calamity 
 with which the United States has been visited in the removal of the 
 Honorable Daniel Webster from the scenes of his earthly labors, 
 are not unmindful of the irreparable loss sustained by those who 
 were associated with him in the more intimate and endearing 
 relations of private life. Ties, which nature and affection unite 
 with such a man, must touch every nerve of sorrow, and render 
 grief almost insupportable. Consolation, however, even under such 
 circumstances, is mercifully extended to assuage the grief of all
 
 SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. 179 
 
 who mourn in the consideration of the useful life of the departed 
 statesman, and the calmness with which he resigned his spirit in 
 death to the God who gave it. 
 
 Resolved, That the President of the Massachusetts Society of 
 the Cincinnati be requested to communicate to the family of the 
 late Honorable Daniel Webster, with every expression of sympathy 
 and condolence, a copy of the preceding preamble and resolutions, 
 and that the Secretary cause the same to be entered upon the records.

 
 ORDERS OF THE GOVERNOR OF MASSA- 
 CHUSETTS. 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS, > 
 i, 1852.) 
 
 OFFICIAL. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 General Order, No. 7. 
 
 Boston, October 28th, 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief, having been informed that 
 the illustrous statesman and patriot, Daniel Webster, 
 Secretary of State of the United States, died at his 
 residence in Marshfield, on the 24th day of October 
 instant orders, that minute-guns be fired at Head- 
 Quarters, from 12 o'clock at noon to 1 o'clock in the 
 afternoon of this day, as an expression of the public 
 sorrow, and as a testimonial of respect for the emi- 
 nent services and character of the deceased. 
 
 Major-General B. F. Edmands is charged with the 
 execution of the above order. The Acting Quarter- 
 master-General will furnish the necessary ammunition, 
 on application of the officer detailed to command the 
 detachment. 
 
 By order of his Excellency, 
 
 GEORGE S. BOUT WELL, 
 Governor and Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 EBENEZER "W. STONE, Adjutant- General.
 
 182 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS, ) 
 Boston, October 29th, 1852. ( 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief, as a further mark of re- 
 spect to the memory of Daniel Webster, orders, that 
 a Federal Salute be fired at Head-Quarters, at sun- 
 rise, Minute-guns from 12 M. to 2 P. M., and a National 
 Salute at sunset, on the 29th instant, being the day 
 of the funeral obsequies at Marshfield. 
 
 Major-General B. F. Edmands is charged with the 
 execution of this order. The Acting Quartermaster- 
 General will furnish the necessary ammunition on 
 application of the officer detailed to command the 
 detachment. 
 
 By command of his Excellency, 
 
 GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, 
 Governor and Commander-in- Chief. 
 
 io
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BUNKER HILL 
 MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. 
 
 AT a special meeting of the Board of Directors 
 of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, on Wed- 
 nesday, October 27, the following resolutions were 
 passed : 
 
 Resolved, That the Directors of the Bunker Hill Monument 
 Association do most severely sympathize in the general grief which 
 has overwhelmed the country in the national loss which it has so 
 unexpectedly been called upon to bear ; by which sad event one 
 of the founders and projectors of the great work of the Association 
 has been removed from earth, the memory of whose undying elo- 
 quence uttered before a vast multitude on Bunker Hill at the laying 
 of the corner stone of the Monument, and also at its completion, 
 will be forever identified with that imperishable memorial to the 
 cause of republican liberty. 
 
 Resolved, That the eminent public services of the illustrious 
 deceased, rendered throughout his whole life, constantly, in full 
 measure and with the most cordial readiness, at the sacrifice of his 
 personal interest, furnish the best example of that high aim which 
 he so eloquently set forth to his countrymen ; for his whole life was 
 to his country, his whole country, and nothing but his country. 
 
 Resolved, That in respect to the memory of Daniel Webster, 
 the monument be dressed with appropriate badges of mourning 
 for the space of thirty days, and that it be recommended to the
 
 184 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 officers and members of the Association to wear the usual badge 
 of mourning upon the left arm for the same term. 
 
 Resolved, That the President, Secretary, and Treasurer of this 
 Association, with Hon. Stephen Fairbanks, Hon. Nathan Hale, 
 Hon. Albert Fearing, Joseph Tilden, Esq., Henry Forster, Esq., 
 and Henry A. Pierce, Esq., be appointed a delegation to attend 
 the funeral of the deceased on Friday next. 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the record of 
 the Association ; that a copy of them, signed by the President and 
 Secretary, be forwarded to the family of the deceased, and that 
 they also be published in the journals of the day. 
 
 G. WASHINGTON WARREN, President. 
 
 JOSEPH H. BUCKINGHAM, Secretary.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS 
 CHARITABLE MECHANICS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 AT a special meeting of the Massachusetts Charita- 
 ble Mechanics' Association, held on the evening of 
 October 29, the following gentlemen were appointed 
 a Committee to report resolutions in relation to the 
 national bereavement which has just fallen upon the 
 American people : Stephen Fairbanks, George Dar- 
 racott, James Clark, Henry N. Hooper, John Rayner, 
 Nathaniel Hammond, Enoch Hobart, Elijah Mears, Fre- 
 derick W. Lincoln, Jr. 
 
 The Committee having retired, subsequently re- 
 ported the following resolutions, which were unani- 
 mously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That this Association shares in the general sensibility 
 and sorrow pervading this community, at the great national loss 
 which the country has sustained in the recent decease of its emi- 
 nent Statesman and Patriot, Daniel Webster. 
 
 Resolved, That while his departure from this life casts a gloom 
 over the hearts of our countrymen in every part of the Union, 
 as well as upon the friends of constitutional liberty throughout 
 the world, yet this bereavement has a deeper poignancy of grief 
 to us who participated with him in those closer local relations 
 24
 
 186 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 growing out of a common citizenship of the same city and Com- 
 monwealth, and has also been enhanced by a still nearer bond 
 to us in our associate capacity ; as is testified in the fact that 
 he has been for many years one of our most valued honorary 
 members. 
 
 Resolved, That in Mr. Webster's life and career we have had 
 the most illustrious example of the full development of genius 
 under Republican institutions ; and its influence in return, upon 
 thos^e institutions themselves, in their more perfect adaptation to 
 the wants of the people in accordance with the progressive spirit 
 of the age. His efforts in behalf of the perpetuity of the Con- 
 stitution, and the sacred obligations of law his interest in the 
 education of the great mass of the people his valuable ser- 
 vices in the development of the agricultural and material resources 
 of the country and his devotion to the cause of manual labor 
 and domestic industry all these, and more of a kindred nature, 
 to the support of which he gave his matchless eloquence, im- 
 pregnated with that stanch American patriotism, worthy of the 
 Father of the Republic, have established for him a fame unsur- 
 passed in the world, and bequeathed to his countrymen and pos- 
 terity a personal example, and the record of a consummate wis- 
 dom, which, if heeded, will secure prosperity to our beloved land, 
 as long as it remains " a power among the nations." 
 
 Resolved, That the government be authorized to take such fur- 
 ther measures in relation to the illustrious deceased as they may 
 deem expedient ; also, that the foregoing resolves be entered upon 
 our records, and a copy of the same be transmitted to Mrs. Web- 
 ster and her family. 
 
 After the passage of the above resolutions, it was 
 
 Voted, That the Government be requested to attend the funeral. 
 
 JONAS CHICKERING, President. 
 FREDERICK H. STIMSOX, Secretary.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON MARINE 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 AT the Annual Meeting of the Boston Marine So- 
 ciety, held November 3d, the following Resolutions, 
 offered by THOMAS B. CURTIS, Esq., were unanimously 
 adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Daniel Webster, the maritime 
 interests of our beloved country have, in common with all other 
 interests, lost their ablest defender. Witness his words " The 
 American Government, then, is prepared to say that the practice 
 of impressing seamen from American vessels CANNOT HEREAFTER 
 BE ALLOWED TO TAKE PLACE." And witness the admission made 
 by Lord Ashburton, then representing the English Government 
 " I must admit that when a British subject Irish, English, or 
 Welsh becomes an American, and claims no longer the protec- 
 tion of his own country, his own country has no right to call him 
 a subject, and to put him in a position to make war on his 
 adopted country" This declaration and this admission entitle 
 Daniel Webster to the gratitude of all who navigate the seas 
 under the United States flag. 
 
 Resolved, That this Society will join in any testimonials of 
 respect which may offer to the members an opportunity of mani- 
 festing their grief, as at the loss of a father and friend. 
 
 Resolved, That the Board of Trustees of this Society be a 
 Committee, with full powers to make such arrangements as may 
 best serve to carry into effect the wishes of the Society, as ex- 
 pressed in the foregoing resolution.

 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SONS OF NEW 
 HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 AT a meeting of the Sons of New Hampshire, held 
 November 6, 1852, the following Resolutions were 
 unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Daniel Webster the State of 
 New Hampshire has lost the most eminent of her Sons, the United 
 States their greatest Statesman, and the World one of its most 
 distinguished Jurists. 
 
 Resolved, That, while in common with others, we have vene- 
 rated him for his majestic intellect, honored him for his wise 
 and patriotic counsels and great public services, and share in the 
 general grief which pervades the whole country upon the occa- 
 sion of this national bereavement, he has been endeared to us 
 still more by his private virtues, the kindness of his heart, and 
 the warmth of his affections. 
 
 Resolved, That this afflictive dispensation of Divine Providence, 
 more especially as it has removed the officer appointed to pre- 
 side at our proposed Festival, renders that Festival inappropriate 
 at the present time, and that, as a token of respect to his memory, 
 it be postponed. 
 
 Resolved, That we respectfully tender the expression of our 
 warmest sympathies to the family and relatives of Mr. Webster, 
 and that the Chairman be requested to transmit to them a copy 
 of these resolutions. 
 
 A copy of Record. 
 
 R. J. BUKBANK, Secretary.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PRESIDENT AND 
 FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE. 
 
 AT a meeting of the President and Fellows of Har- 
 vard College, held in Boston, on Saturday, October 30, 
 1852, the following tribute to the memory of Mr. 
 Webster was read, and was ordered to be entered on 
 the records, to be published in the newspapers, and 
 communicated to the family of the deceased : 
 
 The Corporation of Harvard College, holding a stated 
 meeting during the week of the death and the burial 
 of Daniel Webster, cannot but feel deeply, and desire 
 earnestly to express their sense of the loss of a man 
 whose life was valuable in so many of the most im- 
 portant spheres of human occupation, who was con- 
 nected Avith the management of Harvard College as 
 an Overseer, for a period of thirty years, and who has 
 secured to all American Colleges the enjoyment of the 
 rights conferred by their charters. 
 
 Leaving to others the commemoration of his services 
 in public life, as a statesman and a diplomatist, and 
 in the more private, but scarcely less important posi-
 
 192 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 tion of a jurist, the Corporation deem it appropriate 
 for them to speak, with the admiring applause it de- 
 serves, of his character as a scholar, and a man of 
 letters, a classic writer, and a consummate orator. 
 The discipline he imposed upon himself, from his earli- 
 est youth, in the pursuit of knowledge and skill in 
 these departments of intellectual culture, contending 
 with, and overcoming obstacles thrown in his way by 
 poverty, obscurity of position, and some natural ten- 
 dency to self-distrust, may well serve as an example, 
 and his eminent success as an encouragement, to the 
 young, to lose no moment and no opportunity for the 
 cultivation of the faculties they may possess. Mr. 
 Webster's wonderful powers were made available to 
 the good of his country, and of mankind, by his in- 
 dustry and faithfulness in the use of them, from the 
 earliest period at which any thing is recorded of him 
 to the latest hour of his life ; and while his talents 
 command admiration, the warmer feelings of approba- 
 tion and gratitude are excited by his devotion of 
 them to the highest purposes. The noble example he 
 has given of patriotism, truth, and religious fidelity to 
 his convictions, is of immeasurable value ; and his me- 
 mory will be cherished by the multitudes with whom 
 he has been associated, and by countless generations, 
 who will know him only by the blessings they will 
 owe. 
 
 A true copy of the record, 
 
 JAMES WALKER, Secretary.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 NOVEMBER MEETING, 1852. 
 
 Voted, That Messrs. Robbins, Appleton, and Austin, be a Com- 
 mittee to draft a series of Resolutions appropriate to the memory of 
 our late deceased associate, the Honorable Daniel Webster ; and to 
 report, if any, and what steps should be taken by the Society in con- 
 consequence of his death. 
 
 Copy of record. 
 
 JOSEPH WILLARD, Recording Secretary. 
 
 The Committee, appointed as above, reported, at the 
 regular meeting in December, the following preamble, 
 resolution, and recommendation, which were unani- 
 mously adopted. 
 
 Whereas, in the course of Divine Providence, the spirit of Daniel 
 Webster has returned to God, and the places of public honor and 
 private friendship which knew him on earth, shall know him no more 
 forever; 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the Massachusetts Historical So- 
 ciety, while, in common with the whole American people, they mourn 
 his loss, as an illustrious statesman, an ardent patriot, a wise coun- 
 sellor, an eloquent orator, the ablest defender of the Constitution, and 
 a great man, are desirous, also, as a Society, to express and record 
 
 25
 
 194 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 their tribute of respect to the high services and renowned name of 
 an honored associate, whose matchless powers, devoted to his country, 
 have performed such works as enrich a nation's annals, and make 
 its history glorious. 
 
 Your Committee would further recommend, that Mr. George 
 Ticknor be appointed to prepare a memoir of Mr. Webster, for the 
 Society's publications.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 
 OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 AT a meeting of the Academy at their room in 
 the Athenaeum Building, November 1st, Professor FEL- 
 TON, of Harvard University, called the attention of the 
 members present to a deceased Fellow, the Honorable 
 Daniel Webster, by an address in the following terms : 
 
 Mr. President I rise to suggest that the recent 
 death of an illustrious citizen, be suitably noticed by 
 this Academy, of which he was a Fellow. From every 
 quarter of the country the voice of mourning and 
 lamentation strikes upon the ear; on every side the 
 emblems of grief meet the eye. Daniel Webster is 
 no more, and the great heart of the nation is smitten 
 with sorrow under so heavy a bereavement. All classes 
 of men all parties all professions and occupations 
 join in doing honor to his memory, with a una- 
 nimity of grief unexampled since the death of the 
 Father of his Country. 
 
 It is not my purpose or province to eulogize the 
 man whom a nation deplores. That sad and grateful
 
 196 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 task has been performed by lips touched with the liv- 
 ing flame of eloquence from the altar where his own 
 eloquence was kindled. Those who stood by him 
 longest in public life and who shared most intimate- 
 ly in his friendship and fireside conversation ; his 
 brethren at the Bar, where he was foremost; his asso- 
 ciates in the Senate, where he was the first among 
 equals; his colleagues in the Cabinet, where he was 
 the guiding star of policy ; they who have acted with 
 him or under him, in diplomacy, will most fittingly 
 delineate his character, in its massive proportions and 
 towering grandeur. 
 
 The currents of public and professional life bore 
 him, in a measure, away from the fields of science 
 and letters; and his winter residence, for many years 
 at a distance from this city, deprived us of his per- 
 sonal cooperation in the proceedings of this Academy. 
 Yet, in the midst of great and constant professional 
 labors ; under the weight of public duties and the 
 cares of. office, his comprehensive mind has never been 
 alienated from the genial pursuits of letters and sci- 
 ence. In his legal arguments and his public dis- 
 courses, he has shown rich acquirements in learning, 
 and a minute familiarity with the progress of modern 
 discovery. In the science of government, in political 
 philosophy, he was without a superior. The profound 
 thoughts, matured by his luminous intellect, and given 
 to the public through a long series of years, have be- 
 come a part of the common sense of the country. He 
 was no stranger to the walks of ancient learning. 
 The ethical and political wisdom of Aristotle and Ci- 
 cero he had deeply studied. The poem of Homer, and
 
 AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 197 
 
 the histories of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Polybius, 
 commanded his admiration, and occupied many of his 
 leisure hours. The great Roman Masters were, in a 
 more special manner, his daily friends and compa- 
 nions ; and he read their works not only with an ap- 
 preciation of the substance and philosophy, but with 
 a refined discrimination of their manner and style. 
 With the best writers in English literature, his ac- 
 quaintance was profound and critical. Those who have 
 heard him read from Shakspeare, Milton, and Gray, 
 and converse upon them afterwards, remember, not 
 only how deeply he entered into the spirit of these 
 illustrious authors, but with what rare felicity of judg- 
 ment and delicacy of taste he discriminated the mi- 
 nutest shades of beauty, in the structure of their 
 sentences, and the choice and arrangement of their 
 words. This fine literary taste, the result of natural 
 gifts disciplined by study, is seen in the freshness, 
 vigor, and beauty of his style, in his published works. 
 Mr. Webster was accustomed to lament that the 
 pressure of business had limited his studies to frag- 
 mentary portions of time ; and to regret that he had 
 so seldom enjoyed, for any length of time, the society 
 of scientific men. Yet he had not failed to keep pace 
 with the progress of science in our age. I remember 
 falling accidentally in his company, more than twenty 
 years since, among the granite mountains of New 
 Hampshire, and noticing that the book he had taken 
 with him, on a journey of recreation, was a treatise, 
 then just published, on the science of Geology. In a 
 conversation I held with him just five weeks before 
 his death, he told me that many years ago, being
 
 198 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 unable to visit remote localities, and to examine the 
 formations in situ, and yet desirous to see the order 
 of nature with his own eyes while he read, he had 
 employed a learned geologist to make a collection of 
 specimens, and to arrange them on shelves, according 
 to the succession of layers in the crust of the earth. 
 I might enumerate other sciences, the progress of 
 which had not escaped his attention. The principles 
 of Physical Geography, its relations to the history of 
 man, and the distribution of the animal and vegetable 
 kingdoms over the face of the earth, as developed by 
 Hitter and Humboldt, were well understood by him. 
 Among the books which occupied the last months of 
 his life, was Humboldt's Cosmos, which he had care- 
 fully studied, mastering its substance and details with 
 characteristic ability and comprehension. His tastes 
 as a sportsman had led him to observe carefully the 
 habits of the fishes of our streams and coasts, and his 
 knowledge of them was extensive and exact. One of 
 the plans he had laid out for the leisure he seemed 
 about to enjoy, was to write a work, in which these 
 observations should be recorded. The last request he 
 made to me, in the conversation I have alluded to, 
 was that I would submit to a member of this Aca- 
 demy, whose work on Fresh-water Fishes he had re- 
 cently examined, certain questions relating to some 
 of the phenomena of Ichthyology, which he had no- 
 ticed, but did not fully understand. 
 
 I have thought, Mr. President, that the character 
 and works of this distinguished person were such that 
 his associates in this Academy would deem it fitting 
 to notice the Dispensation of Providence which has
 
 AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 199 
 
 taken him away. I am persuaded it will be the dic- 
 tate of every heart, if I may borrow the words of 
 one of his favorite authors, "Sic memoriam venerari, 
 ut omnia facta dictaque ejus secum revolvant, for- 
 rnamque ac figuram animi magis quam corporis com- 
 plectantur. Forma mentis ceterna. Quidquid ex eo 
 amavinius, quidquid rnirati sumus, manet, mansururn- 
 que est, in animis hominum, in seternitate temporum, 
 fama rerum." 
 
 I ask leave to offer the following resolutions: 
 
 Resolved, That the Fellows of the American Academy of Arts 
 and Sciences deeply lament the decease of their late associate, 
 the Honorable Daniel Webster, Secretary of State of the United 
 States. By his death the Country is bereaved of her ablest prac- 
 tical statesman, and profoundest political philosopher ; Letters and 
 Eloquence have lost a most distinguished ornament ; Science is de- 
 prived of a great and versatile mind, which understood its pro- 
 gress, appreciated its value, recognized its dignity, and mastered 
 its results, in the midst of professional labors and public cares, to 
 which his energies were devoted almost to the last moment of 
 his life. 
 
 Resolved, That the Fellows of this Academy tender to the 
 family of their late eminent associate their most respectful sym- 
 pathy, in this private and public calamity. 
 
 The resolutions were seconded by the Hon. Francis 
 C. Gray, who made some remarks, and by Professor 
 Parsons, of the Cambridge Law School, who spoke in 
 their support; and they were unanimously adopted.
 
 FUNERAL. 
 
 26
 
 
 ' 
 
 <jno8nl diiw bsiBqsi 
 ~xe
 
 THE FUNERAL. 
 
 FRIDAY, October 29, was the day of Mr. Webster's 
 funeral. Boston never before presented probably 
 never will again present so general an aspect of 
 mourning, and never were there witnessed such spon- 
 taneous, universal, and deep tokens of feeling. Most 
 of the shops were closed, as well as the public in- 
 stitutions, offices, and markets ; and a large propor- 
 tion of the city was dressed in the habiliments of 
 sorrow. The mourning draperies upon many of the 
 buildings, public and private, were rich, elaborate, and 
 tasteful. Festoons of black and white were almost 
 continuous through Washington, Hanover, and other 
 principal streets ; and multiplied mottoes, expressing 
 grief and admiration, were placed upon walls and 
 over door-ways. Flags, prepared with inscriptions and 
 dressed in mourning, were extended across the streets. 
 In general, the mottoes and inscriptions were ex- 
 tremely well chosen and appropriate, and were a 
 proof, not only of the estimation in which Mr. Web- 
 ster was held in Boston, but of the high standard of 
 taste and cultivation among its citizens. 
 
 In the multiplicity of these personal and spontane-
 
 204 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 ous expressions of feeling, it is impossible to describe, 
 or specify any ; but from amongst the mottoes, of 
 which more than a hundred were exhibited, the fol- 
 lowing are selected : 
 
 His words of wisdom, with resistless poAver, 
 
 Have graced our brightest, cheered our darkest hour. 
 
 Thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. 
 
 We've scanned the actions of his daily life and nothing meets our eyes 
 but deeds of honor. 
 
 Some when they die, die all. Their mouldering clay is but an emblem 
 of their memories. But he has lived. He leaves a work be- 
 hind which will pluck the shining age from vulgar 
 time, and give it whole to late posterity. 
 
 Thou art mighty yet. Thy spirit walks abroad. 
 The great heart of the nation throbs heavily at the portals of his grave. 
 
 Live like patriots ! Live like Americans ! United all, united now, and 
 
 united forever. 
 
 Wherever among men a heart shall be found that beats to the trans- 
 ports of patriotism and liberty, its aspirations shall 
 be to claim kindred with his spirit. 
 
 Then this Daniel was preferred above the Presidents and Princes, 
 because an excellent spirit was in him. 
 
 Know thou, O stranger, to the fame 
 Of this much loved, much honored name, 
 (For none that knew him need be told,) 
 A warmer heart Death ne'er made cold. 
 
 The glory of thy life, like the day of thy death, shall not fail from the 
 remembrance of man. 
 
 Between twelve and one the hour of the funeral
 
 THE FUNERAL. 205 
 
 at Marshfield minute guns were fired, and the bells 
 of the churches were tolled ; from sunrise to sunset 
 guns were fired every fifteen minutes, and almost con- 
 tinuously. Similar signs of mourning were heard from 
 the hills of the neighboring towns, and along the line 
 of the coast. The streets were crowded with citizens 
 and visitors from the country, reading the inscriptions, 
 and walking through the public buildings, all wearing, 
 upon their saddened countenances, tokens of sincere 
 sorrow. Though a day of leisure and entire cessa- 
 tion from labor, there was no thought of any thing 
 but our great loss. There were no smiling faces to 
 be seen, and no cheerful voices to be heard. 
 
 The funeral solemnities were at Mr. Webster's own 
 residence in Marshfield. In conformity with the wish 
 expressed in his will, every thing was arranged with 
 the utmost simplicity, in the order usual in a New 
 England funeral, but private it could not be. In ad- 
 dition to the general sense of loss in the removal of 
 a great leader and a statesman, in whose wisdom and 
 firmness so strong a confidence was reposed, there 
 was in many hearts a feeling of personal bereave- 
 ment in the death of a revered and beloved friend ; 
 and thus thousands were led to the spot by a wish 
 to honor his memory and look once more upon his 
 face. From all quarters, by every path, and by every 
 conveyance, great multitudes came together ; and the 
 whole number of persons assembled at the hour of 
 noon was probably not less than ten or twelve thou- 
 sand. 
 
 A thoughtful consideration for the feelings of all 
 who \vere present was shown in the arrangements of
 
 206 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 the funeral. In order that the wish which all felt, 
 to look for the last time upon the face of the illus- 
 trious dead, might be gratified without hurry or con- 
 fusion, the body was brought from the library at an 
 early hour in the morning and placed upon the lawn, 
 in front of the house, beneath the open heavens and 
 under a tree which, in its summer foliage, was a con- 
 spicuous ornament of the spot. The majestic form 
 reposed in the familiar garb of life, with more than 
 the dignity of life in its most imposing moments. 
 Suffering had changed, without impairing those noble 
 features. The grandeur of the brow was untouched, 
 and the attitude full of strength and peace. For 
 more than three hours a constant stream of men and 
 women, of all ages, passed on both sides, pausing for 
 a moment to look upon that loved and honored form. 
 Parents held their children by the hand, bade them 
 contemplate the face of their benefactor, and charged 
 them never to lose the memory of that spectacle and 
 that hour. Many dissolved into tears as they turned 
 aside; and one a man of plain garb and appearance 
 was heard to make, in a subdued voice, the striking 
 remark, " Daniel Webster, the world will seem lone- 
 some without you." 
 
 The thoughtful and kindly feeling which dictated 
 all the arrangements, permitted any who wished, 
 to enter the house by the principal entrance, walk 
 through a small sitting-room, where hang several fami- 
 ly portraits, and going through the library, a beauti- 
 ful and favorite room, ornamented with the like- 
 nesses of Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton, pass out 
 upon the lawn. Thousands availed themselves of this
 
 THE FUNERAL. 207 
 
 privilege, silently, decorously, sadly. There was no 
 sound from that vast multitude, but the inevitable 
 grating of their feet upon the paths. This was like the 
 chafing of the surf upon a pebbly beach, a strange, 
 impressive murmur. 
 
 At twelve, the passing through the house was 
 stopped. Soon afterwards, the Rev. EBENEZER ALDEN, 
 pastor of the Congregational Church in South Marsh- 
 field, where Mr. Webster had been accustomed to 
 attend public worship, commenced the religious ser- 
 vice by reading a selection from the Bible. After 
 which, the following address was made by him: 
 
 On an occasion like the present, a multitude of 
 words were worse than idle. Standing before that ma- 
 jestic form, it becomes ordinary men to keep silence. 
 "He being dead, yet speaketh." In the words he 
 applied to Washington, in the last great public dis- 
 course he ever delivered, the whole atmosphere is 
 redolent of his name ; hills and forests, rocks and 
 rivers, echo and reecho his praises. All the good, 
 whether learned or unlearned, high or low, rich or 
 poor, feel this day that there is one treasure common 
 to them all, and that is the fame and character of 
 Webster. They recount his deeds, ponder over his 
 principles and teachings, and resolve to be more and 
 more guided by them in future. Americans by birth 
 are proud of his character, and exiles from foreign 
 shores are eager to participate in admiration of him; 
 and it is true that he is, this day, here, everywhere, 
 more an object of love and regard than on any day 
 since his birth.
 
 208 AVEBSTEK MEMORIAL. 
 
 And while the world, too prone to worship mere 
 intellect, laments that the orator and statesman is no 
 more, we enter upon more sacred ground, and dwell 
 upon the example and counsels of a Christian, as a 
 husband, father, and friend. I trust it will be no rude 
 wounding of the spirit, no intrusion upon the privacy 
 of (Domestic life, to allude to a few circumstances in 
 the last scenes of the mortal existence of the great 
 man who is gone, fitted to administer Christian con- 
 solation, and to guide to a better acquaintance with 
 that religion which is adapted both to temper our 
 grief and establish our hope. 
 
 Those who were present upon the morning of that 
 Sabbath upon which this head of a family conducted 
 the worship of his household, will never forget, as he 
 read from our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, the em- 
 phasis which he alone was capable of giving to that 
 passage which speaks of the divine nature of forgive- 
 ness. They saw beaming from that eye, now closed 
 in death, the Spirit of Him who first uttered that 
 godlike sentiment. 
 
 And he who, by the direction of the dying man, 
 upon a subsequent morning of the day of rest, read 
 in their connection these words : " Lord, I believe ; 
 help thou my unbelief;" and then the closing chap- 
 ter of our Saviour's last words to his disciples, being 
 particularly requested to dwell upon this clause of 
 the verse "Holy Father, keep through thine own 
 name those whom thou hast given me, that they may 
 be one as we are" beheld a sublime illustration of 
 the indwelling and abiding power of Christian faith. 
 
 And if these tender remembrances only cause our
 
 THE FUNERAL. 209 
 
 tears to flow more freely, it may not be improper for 
 us to present the example of the father, when his 
 great heart was rent by the loss of a daughter whom 
 he most dearly loved. Those present on that occa- 
 sion well remember when the struggle of mortal agony 
 was over, retiring from the presence of the dead, bow- 
 ing together before the presence of God, and joining 
 with the afflicted father as he poured forth his soul, 
 pleading for grace and strength from on high. 
 
 As upon the morning of his death we conversed 
 upon the evident fact that, for the last few weeks, his 
 mind had been engaged in preparation for an ex- 
 change of worlds, one who knew him, well remarked, 
 "His whole life has been that preparation." The 
 people of this rural neighborhood, among whom he 
 spent the last twenty years of his life, among whom 
 he died, and with whom he is to rest, have been 
 accustomed to regard him with mingled veneration 
 and love. Those who knew him best, can the most 
 truly appreciate the lessons both from his lips and ex- 
 ample, teaching the sustaining power of the Gospel. 
 
 His last words, "I STILL LIVE," we may interpret in 
 a higher sense than that in which they are usually 
 regarded. He has taught us how to attain the life 
 of faith and the life to come. 
 
 Vividly impressed upon the memory of the speaker 
 is the instruction once received as to the fitting way 
 of presenting divine truth from the sacred desk. 
 Would that its force might be felt by those who are 
 called to minister in divine things. Said Mr. Web- 
 ster, "When I attend upon the preaching of the Gos- 
 pel, I wish to have it made a personal matter, A PER- 
 
 27
 
 210 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 SONAL MATTER, A PERSONAL MATTER." It is to 
 present him as enforcing these divine lessons of wis- 
 dom and consolation, that we have recalled to your 
 minds these precious recollections. 
 
 And we need utter no apology. Indeed, we should 
 be inexcusable in letting the present opportunity pass 
 without unveiling the inner sanctuary of the life of 
 the foremost man of all this world; for his most inti- 
 mate friends are well aware that he had it in mind 
 to prepare a work upon the internal evidences of 
 Christianity, as a testimony of his heartfelt conviction 
 of the "divine reality" of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 But, finding himself rapidly approaching those august 
 scenes of immortality into which he had so often 
 looked, he dictated the most important part of his 
 epitaph. And so long as "the rock shall guard his 
 rest, and the ocean sound his dirge," the world shall 
 read upon his monument, not only 
 
 One of the few, the immortal names, 
 Which were not born to die ; 
 
 but also that Daniel Webster lived and died in the 
 Christian faith. The delineation which he gave of 
 one of his early and noble compeers, could never have 
 been written except from an experimental acquaint- 
 ance with that which he holds up as the chief excel- 
 lence of his friend. This description we shall apply to 
 himself, trusting that it will be as well understood 
 as admired. 
 
 Political eminence and professional fame fade away 
 and die with all things earthly. Nothing of character 
 is really permanent but virtue and personal worth.
 
 THE FUNERAL. 211 
 
 These remain. Whatever of excellence is wrought 
 into the soul itself belongs to both worlds. Real 
 goodness does not attach itself merely to this life; it 
 points to another world. Political or professional re- 
 putation cannot last forever; but a conscience void 
 of offence before God and man is an inheritance for 
 eternity. Religion, therefore, is a necessary and in- 
 dispensable element in any great human character. 
 There is no living without it. Religion is the tie 
 that connects man with his Creator, and holds him 
 to His throne. If that tie be all sundered, all broken, 
 he floats away, a worthless atom in the universe ; its 
 proper attractions all gone, its destiny thwarted, and 
 its whole future nothing but darkness, desolation, and 
 death. A man with no sense of religious duty is he 
 whom the Scriptures describe in such terse but ter- 
 rific language, as living without God in the world. 
 Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the 
 circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his 
 happiness, and away, far, far away from the purposes 
 of his creation. 
 
 A mind like Mr. Webster's, active, thoughtful, pene- 
 trating, sedate, could not but meditate deeply on the 
 condition of man below, and feel its responsibilities. 
 He could not look on this mighty system, 
 
 This universal frame, thus wondrous fair, 
 
 without feeling that it was created and upheld by an 
 Intelligence, to which all other intelligence must be re- 
 sponsible. I am bound to say that in the course of my 
 life I never met with an individual, in any profession 
 or condition, who always spoke and always thought
 
 212 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 with such awful reverence of the power and presence 
 of God. No irreverence, no lightness, even no too 
 familiar allusion to God and his attributes ever escap- 
 ed his lips. The very notion of a Supreme Being 
 was, with him, made up of awe and solemnity. It 
 filled the whole of his great mind with the strongest 
 emotions. A man like him, with all his proper senti- 
 ments and sensibilities alive in him, must, in this 
 state of existence, have something to believe, and 
 something to hope for; or else, as life is advancing 
 to its close, all is heart-sinking and oppression. De- 
 pend upon it, whatever may be the mind of an old 
 man, old age is only really happy when, on feeling 
 the enjoyments of this world pass away, it begins to 
 lay a stronger hold on the realities of another. 
 
 Mr. Webster's religious sentiments and feelings were 
 the crowning glories of his character. 
 
 The address was followed by a prayer. The rooms, 
 hall, and stairway, were filled by Mr. Webster's rela- 
 tives and friends, while a vast mass of listeners stood 
 on the piazza, and on the lawn; the position of the 
 clergyman, near the hall door, enabling many to hear. 
 
 During the exercises, unperceived by the group 
 round the clergyman, arrangements were made for 
 conveying the body to the tomb. The metallic case, 
 in which it was deposited, was covered, and placed on 
 a simple, low platform, drawn by one pair of black 
 horses, whose harness was slightly dressed with crape. 
 The coffin was covered with full black cloth, confined 
 by several plated ornaments; a wreath of oak leaves 
 was at the head ; another of fresh flowers at the foot.
 
 THE FUNERAL. 213 
 
 After a few moments' pause, at the conclusion of 
 the prayer, two or three gentlemen quietly and gra- 
 dually opened a path through the dense mass of per- 
 sons around the house. In solemn silence, six of Mr. 
 Webster's neighbors, Asa llewett, Seth "VVeston, Eleazer 
 Harlow, J. P. Cushnian, Tilden Ames, Daniel Phillips, 
 took their places on either side of his bier. His son, 
 grandson, relatives, domestics, and the persons having 
 the charge and management of his estates, stood next. 
 Among the domestics were several colored persons, 
 who had been long in Mr. Webster's service, and were 
 deeply attached to him. One of them had been re- 
 cently emancipated by him. The Governor of the 
 Commonwealth, the Council and State Officers, the 
 Mayor of Boston and City Government, distinguished 
 citizens of Massachusetts, and many from the other 
 New England States, and delegations from other States 
 and cities, with hundreds of personal, devoted friends 
 of Mr. Webster, quietly passed into the long sad pro- 
 cession ; truly a sad procession ; for the multitudes 
 that lined the path for nearly the whole distance to 
 the tomb, were moved by the same grief that rested 
 on the hearts of the mourners. 
 
 The morning had been uncommonly beautiful. The 
 air was soft and warm, and the light so rich and 
 golden, that the slight shade still found under some 
 few trees, had been grateful. Just as the procession 
 began to move, a chill breeze came up from the ocean, 
 and threw a veil of mist over the sky. 
 
 When the funeral train, all on foot, unheralded by 
 official pomp, military display, or even the strains of 
 mourning music, had reached the modest tomb, the
 
 214 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 honored form was rested at the entrance. It was once 
 more uncovered that relatives and friends might again 
 and for the last time, look upon that majestic counte- 
 nance ; a fervent prayer was again offered ; and then, 
 slowly and sadly, friend and stranger passed away, and 
 left the illustrious sleeper with those whom he had so 
 tenderly loved in life, and with whom death had now 
 reunited him. 
 
 The tomb, with its group of unpretending monu- 
 ments, is on a gentle eminence, about a mile from 
 the mansion-house, and adjoining the ancient village 
 burying-ground, where rests the dust of some of the 
 early Pilgrim Fathers. Mr. Webster had himself 
 superintended the preparation of the tomb, and the 
 erection of the monuments to the wife and children 
 he had lost, directing that the one erected to himself 
 should be of the same style and proportions. Over 
 the door of the tomb is cut merely, " Daniel Web- 
 ster." On the three monuments within the inclosure, 
 are the following inscriptions: 
 
 GRACE FLETCHER, 
 
 Wife of Daniel Webster, 
 
 Born January 16, 1781, 
 
 Died January 21, 1828. 
 
 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 
 
 JULIA WEBSTER, 
 
 wife of 
 
 Samuel Appleton Appleton ; 
 Born January 16, 1818, 
 
 Died April 28, 1848, 
 Let me go, for the day breaketh. 
 
 MART CONSTANCE APPLETON, 
 
 Born Feb. 7, 1848. 
 Died March 15, 1849.
 
 THE FUNERAL. 215 
 
 MAJOR EDWARD WEBSTER, 
 
 Born July 20, 1820. 
 
 Died at San Angel, in Mexico, 
 
 In the military service 
 
 of his country, 
 
 Jan. 23, 1848. 
 
 A dearly beloved son and brother. 
 
 As the multitude turned from the hallowed spot, 
 many gathered flowers, leaves, or even blades of grass, 
 to be treasured as memorials of a day, unequalled in 
 solemn pathos, within their experience. The effect 
 upon the minds of all present, can never be described. 
 
 All things were in harmony, the beauty of the 
 day, the falling leaves, the countenances of the assem- 
 bled multitude, the appropriate arrangements, the as- 
 pect of the autumnal landscape, all aided in pro- 
 ducing an elevated and tender mood of feeling. It- 
 was one of those rare occasions in which a brief space 
 of time is sufficient to leave impressions, which all the 
 experiences of future life will not be able to efface.
 

 
 ON THE 
 
 THIRTIETH OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 28
 
 2:1! 
 

 
 PROCESSION AND SERVICES ON THE 
 THIRTIETH OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 TUESDAY, November 30th, was the day devoted by 
 the City Authorities of Boston, to a public expression 
 of respect for the memory of Mr. Webster. The day 
 was highly favorable, the weather being mild, and the 
 air clear. The common business of the city, was sus- 
 pended, and the streets were filled with a concourse 
 of spectators, whose manner and appearance showed 
 their sense of the great loss they had sustained. 
 
 The New Hampshire Legislature had voted to at- 
 tend the obsequies ; and, at an early hour in the morn- 
 ing, the Executive Committee of the Sons of New 
 Hampshire, and other natives of the State, assembled 
 at the Depot of the Lowell Railroad, in order to re- 
 ceive them. 
 
 The Concord train came in at a quarter after nine 
 o'clock, with about two hundred and fifty members of 
 the Council, Senate, and House of Representatives. 
 Hon. John S. Wells, President of the New Hampshire 
 Senate, Governor Martin being detained by indisposi- 
 tion, was introduced to Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, Pre-
 
 220 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 sident of the Executive Committee of the Sons of New 
 Hampshire, in Boston, by Mr. Wiggin, of Dover, of the 
 Committee of Arrangements. After the introduction, 
 Colonel WILDER addressed Mr. Wells, as the represent- 
 ative of his State, as follows : 
 
 Mr. President of the Senate, and Gentlemen In 
 behalf of the Sons of New Hampshire, resident in 
 Boston and vicinity, I bid you welcome to this city, 
 and to the State of our adoption. 
 
 The afflictive dispensation of Providence which has 
 assembled us together this morning, and the objects 
 of our meeting are so well known by all, as to need 
 only a brief explanation from me. 
 
 A mighty one has fallen ! Our elder brother, New 
 Hampshire's favorite son, is no more ! All that was 
 mortal of Daniel Webster, the great American Ex- 
 pounder of Constitutional authority and National rights, 
 has been consigned to the bosom of his mother earth. 
 
 The loss to us, to the country, and the world, is 
 irreparable. The whole nation mourns. Our city is 
 hung in the drapery of woe, "and the mourners go 
 about the streets." 
 
 New Hampshire claims the honor of Mr. Webster's 
 birth ; and among the millions who are afflicted in the 
 general bereavement, none, I am sure, are more sin- 
 cere mourners, than her sons. As brethren of the 
 same family, we receive you with true fraternal affec- 
 tion; and we unite our sympathy and mingle our 
 tears with yours. 
 
 But in this hour of our trial and sorrow, let us not 
 forget that our loss is his unspeakable gain. Although
 
 PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 221 
 
 we now mourn, let us thank God that he was spared 
 to us so long, that he was enabled to accomplish so 
 much for us, and for the cause of universal freedom 
 and humanity, and that his sun was permitted to go 
 down unclouded, and shining in the greatness of its 
 strength. 
 
 Gentlemen, it is not my province to pronounce his 
 eulogy ; that duty will be performed by abler men, 
 and more gifted lips. 
 
 Daniel Webster is dead ! We shall see that majes- 
 tic form no more ! But his fame is immortal ! It is 
 registered on the hearts of his grateful countrymen. 
 Yes, and it shall be transmitted unsullied and un- 
 tarnished through all coming ages ; and when the 
 monumental marble shall have crumbled into dust, it 
 shall " still live ! " It shall LIVE FOREVER ! 
 
 To which, Hon. JOHN S. WELLS replied, in behalf of 
 the New Hampshire Delegation : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, " Sons of New Hamp- 
 shire " The representatives of the people of New 
 Hampshire have postponed, for this day, their official 
 duties, that they may join the citizens of Massachu- 
 setts in doing honor to the memory of him, whose 
 birthplace, like yours, was surrounded by the wild 
 scenery of our mountains, but whose fame is limited 
 only by the bleak regions of ignorance and barbarism. 
 We thank you, gentlemen, for your kind civilities to 
 us on this occasion, and trust that the impressions of 
 this day may induce in us a warmer love for our 
 native State, and a more ardent desire for the preser- 
 vation of our common country
 
 222 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 The bodies then formed in procession, under direc- 
 tion of Mr. Cheney, Chief Marshal of the " Sons," and 
 proceeded to the State House, where the guests from 
 New Hampshire were introduced to Governor Bout- 
 well and the Executive Council, by Mr. Wilder, and 
 the GOVERNOR made the following address : 
 
 Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Executive and 
 Legislative Departments of New Hampshire Occa- 
 sions of mourning come to communities and nations 
 as they do to individuals and families of the human 
 race. This is an unusual assemblage. Massachusetts 
 and New Hampshire have together passed through 
 scenes of trial and suffering, and together have en- 
 joyed the nation's triumphs and participated in the 
 nation's prosperity. But now, in the general bereave- 
 ment, they are peculiarly afflicted. New Hampshire 
 has had no such other son; Massachusetts has had no 
 such other citizen as Daniel Webster. Amid the so- 
 lemnities of death, the differences of life shall be for- 
 gotten, and from the common grief shall spring senti- 
 ments of patriotism and religion, whose influence shall 
 be felt in coming centuries of our country's existence. 
 Gentlemen, we accept your presence as an elevated 
 token of respect for the illustrious dead, and as an 
 assurance that, with the other States of this confede- 
 racy, our principles, our hopes, our destiny, are one. 
 
 President WELLS responded as follows : 
 Sir In the absence of his Excellency, Governor 
 Martin, who is prevented by illness from joining us 
 on this occasion, allow me to say, that the several
 
 PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 223 
 
 branches of the Legislature of New Hampshire have 
 met your Excellency and the citizens of Massachusetts 
 here to-day, to join in the ceremonies to be observed 
 by you, in honor of the memory of the late Daniel 
 Webster. 
 
 The sable drapery of the legislative halls, from which 
 we this morning departed, exhibits the outward signs 
 of that sadness which pervades not only the hearts 
 of the members of the New Hampshire Legislature, 
 but of the sons of New Hampshire everywhere, on 
 account of this national bereavement. They, with you, 
 lament the fall of the illustrious Webster. His fame 
 belongs to the nation. His birthplace was amid our 
 mountains ; he was trained in the rigid discipline of 
 New Hampshire schools; and went forth from his na- 
 tive State majestic in person and mind, towering above 
 all competition, even as our famed Mount Washington 
 towers above all surrounding objects, and fell not till 
 his splendid mind was recognized as one of the bright- 
 est, loftiest intellects of earth. And we have come 
 here to-day to give force, if possible, to the hand 
 which shall inscribe on the brazen tablets the record 
 of his mental greatness. 
 
 Though a large majority of this body disagreed 
 with him in the leading political doctrines of his life, 
 yet, as an orator, a scholar, and a jurist, they have ever 
 referred to him with pride and satisfaction; and when 
 the black cloud of disunion was seen in the distance, 
 and angry, convulsive feelings were aroused through- 
 out our land, they gladly listened to the voice of 
 Webster as it rang clear and powerful above the ex- 
 cited elements, urging his countrymen to the patriotic
 
 224 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 duty of standing by the Union and the Constitution. 
 Then it was, sir, that the mass of New Hampshire 
 hearts were turned warmly towards him. That act of 
 patriotic devotion to his country swept into forgetful- 
 ness years of political hostility. And when it was 
 told us that his great light was sinking beneath the 
 horizon of life, the freemen of New Hampshire mingled 
 their thankfulness of heart with their patriotic coun- 
 trymen, that he could depart with the assurance that 
 he left but few "seeking to look beyond the Union, 
 to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess be- 
 hind." 
 
 They sincerely rejoiced that when, for the "last 
 time, he turned his eyes to behold the sun in heaven, 
 he did not see it shining on the broken and disho- 
 nored fragments of a once glorious Union." But that 
 his "last and lingering glance did behold the gor- 
 geous ensign of the Republic, now known and honor- 
 ed throughout the earth, not a stripe erased or pol- 
 luted, not a single star obscured, bearing not for its 
 motto the miserable interrogatory, What is all this worth ? 
 but that other sentiment, dear to every true American 
 heart, Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 
 inseparable." 
 
 The two bodies then separated to join in the prc 
 cession. 
 
 The different civic bodies which turned out, assem- 
 bled in due season at the several points assigned to 
 them, and at half-past eleven o'clock the procession 
 was brought into line, and soon after put in motion, 
 from the City Hall, marching up Tremont street in 
 the following order:
 
 PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 225 
 
 Military Escort, under command of 
 Brigadier-General Samuel Andrews. 
 
 Suffolk Brass Band. 
 Battalion of Cavalry, under command of Major J. T. Pierce. 
 
 National Lancers Capt. Jepson. 
 
 Light Dragoons Capt. Wright. 
 
 Salem Brass Band. 
 
 Artillery llegiment, (with mounted field-pieces), under command of Col. 
 
 Cowdin. 
 
 Washington Artillery Capt. Bullock. 
 
 Boston Artillery. Capt. Evans. 
 
 Cowdin Phalanx Capt. Wardwell. 
 
 Roxbury Artillery Capt. Webber. 
 
 Columbian Artillery- * Lieut. Doherty. 
 
 Gloucester Artillery Capt. Cook. 
 
 Lynn Artillery Capt. Herbert. 
 
 Brigade Band. 
 
 Regiment of Light Infantry, under command of Col. Holbrook. 
 
 Pulaski Guards Capt. Wright. 
 
 City Guards Capt. French. 
 
 New England Guards Capt. Henshaw. 
 
 Boston Light Guard Lieut. Coverly. 
 
 Independent Fusileers Capt. Mitchell. 
 
 National Guai'd Lieut. Walker. 
 
 Washington Light Guard Capt. Flagg. 
 
 Boston Light Infantry Capt. Ashley. 
 
 Col. Green and Staff. 
 
 Cambridge City Guards Capt. Meecham. 
 
 Richardson Guards Lieut. Dearborn. 
 
 Stoneham Light Guard Capt. Dyke. 
 
 Winchester Light Guards Capt. Prince. 
 
 Mechanic Riflemen Capt. Adams. 
 
 Veteran Association Capt. Calfe. 
 
 Then came Gen. John S. Tyler, Chief Marshal of the 
 day, and his Aids, followed by some forty carriages, 
 containing the Municipal Authorities and many distin- 
 guished citizens, the Mayor and City Council of Rox- 
 bury, the Postmaster, Collector of the Port and Naval 
 
 29
 
 226 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Officer of Boston, the Judges of the United States and 
 State Courts, Foreign Consuls, and officers of the Uni- 
 ted States Navy. 
 
 Next came the Independent Cadets, under command 
 of Colonel T. C. Amory, accompanied by the Winches- 
 ter Brass Band, as a guard of honor to his Excellency 
 the Governor and the Executive Council ; followed by 
 the Boston School Committee, the Sergeant-at-Arms, 
 Senators and Representatives of Massachusetts, and 
 the Webster Executive Committee. 
 
 The third division was headed by the Newton Brass 
 Band, and contained the members of the New Hamp- 
 shire Legislature, the City Government of Charlestown, 
 and a delegation from Springfield. 
 
 The fourth division was headed by the Lowell Brass 
 Band, and contained the " Sons of New Hampshire," 
 "Massachusetts Society of Cincinnati," (in carriages,) 
 the " Cape Cod Association," with the Braintree Brass 
 Band, the "Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Asso- 
 ciation," and the " Mercantile Library Association," 
 with the American Brass Band. The banner of the 
 Sons of New Hampshire was of white satin, fringed 
 with black, and contained on the front a striking like- 
 ness of Daniel Webster, over which was the motto, 
 " I Still Live," and below it were the words, " I speak 
 to-day for the preservation of the Union." On one 
 side of the portrait, a figure of the Goddess of Lib- 
 erty held a green wreath over the head of Webster; 
 on the other was the national eagle, scroll, and motto. 
 Below was the coaix)f-arms of the State of New Hamp- 
 shire, and the national shield, and at the botton was 
 printed, " Sons of New Hampshire." On the reverse
 
 PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 227 
 
 was, "One Country, one Constitution, one Destiny." 
 "The ends I shall aim at, shall be my Country's, my 
 God's, and Truth's." 
 
 The fifth division contained the "Scots' Charitable 
 Society," and was headed by the Roxbury Brass Band, 
 and a Highland piper. On one banner of this Society 
 was inscribed, 
 
 Wide o'er the naked world declare 
 The worth we've lost. 
 
 " Boston Irish Protestant Mutual Relief Society," with 
 a banner bearing the words " The Immortal Web- 
 ster ; " on the reverse, " The Immortal Wellington." 
 The "French Mutual Relief Society," with a banner 
 inscribed " Daniel Webster, fut un grand homme : Fran- 
 ^ais, honorons sa memoire," on the reverse, " Daniel 
 Webster Thy name will ever be dear to our me- 
 mory." The "United Shamrock Society" was accom- 
 panied by the East Boston Brass Band, and the 
 "Boston Roman Catholic Mutual Relief Society" fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 The sixth division was headed by the Boston Brass 
 Band, and contained citizens of Charlestown, three 
 out-of-town Fire Companies, the "Bunker Hill Boys," 
 and the " Sons of Maine," in strong force. 
 
 The seventh division was headed by the Dedham 
 Brass Band, and contained the " Mechanic Apprentices' 
 Library Association," the " Boston Boys' Webster Club," 
 Avith a banner inscribed, "A nation's gratitude the 
 choicest gift of a people," and on the reverse, " I still 
 live" "Webster for the Union." The "Jamaica Plain 
 Boys " bore a banner inscribed " Vivat Vivetque." 
 
 The eighth division was headed by the Easton Brass 
 Band, and contained various Associations. The Caval-
 
 228 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 cade composed the ninth division, embracing horsemen 
 from various adjacent towns and cities. 
 
 The solemn train passed through Tremont, Boylston, 
 Pleasant, Washington, and Oak streets, Harrison Ave- 
 nue to Beach, Lincoln, Summer, Winter, Park, Beacon, 
 Joy, Mount Vernon, Hancock, Cambridge, Court, and 
 Sudbury streets, across Hayrnarket Square to Black- 
 stone, Hanover, Court, and State to Commercial and 
 South Market streets to Faneuil Hall, where it arrived 
 about two o'clock. 
 
 The procession consumed rather more than an hour 
 in passing each point on the route. The number of 
 persons in the column exclusive of the military, 
 cavalcade, and those in carriages, by actual count 
 amounted to more than two thousand. The number 
 in the cavalcade was about four hundred, and in car- 
 riages between two and three hundred. Including the 
 military, therefore, the whole procession probably num- 
 bered not far from four thousand. It proceeded gene- 
 rally in good order and without confusion, and its 
 quiet passage was observed by the spectators in so- 
 lemn silence. 
 
 The buildings on the route of the procession were 
 very generally decorated with the symbols of mourn- 
 ing. Black and white drapery was used with good 
 effect, and, in many places, busts and portraits of Mr. 
 Webster were displayed. 
 
 The appearance of Faneuil Hall was highly solemn 
 and impressive. Heavy folds of woollen cloth covered 
 the ceiling, fastened in the centre by a silver star. 
 The pillars were wholly cased in the same material, 
 which also passed along the front of the encircling 
 gallery. To this covering of the balustrade of the
 
 PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 229 
 
 gallery was attached another mass of black cloth, bear- 
 ing, in large gilded letters, the following inscriptions, 
 being sentences from Mr. Webster's Works. In front 
 of the north gallery were the words, " OUR COUNTRY, 
 OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY." In 
 front of the eastern gallery, the words "LIBERTY AND 
 
 UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE," Were 
 
 inscribed ; and in front of the south gallery the words 
 
 "WE TURN TO HIS TRANSCENDENT NAME FOR COURAGE 
 
 AND CONSOLATION." The clock was wholly covered, and 
 the folds of the drapery, hanging from the back of 
 the eagle, were so arranged as to form a niche, where 
 a bust of Mr. Webster, by Mr. Ball, was placed. 
 
 No pictures were visible but the large one, by Mr. 
 Healey, representing Mr. Webster in the Senate, re- 
 plying to Mr. Hayne, which hangs at the end of the 
 hall, and the portraits of Washington and Faneuil. The 
 frames were entirely concealed by black cloth. Mr. 
 Ilealey's picture was illuminated by lights from below, 
 so arranged as to throw their full force upon the 
 figure of Mr. Webster, producing a striking and beau- 
 tiful effect. Under this picture, the words " WE CLAIM 
 HIM FOR AMERICA" were inscribed in gilt letters. Upon 
 the rostrum, which was raised and extended for the 
 occasion, was placed a marble bust of Mr. Webster by 
 Mr. King. It stood upon a pedestal about five feet 
 high, and excited general admiration. On each side 
 of the platform were displayed small American flags, 
 craped. 
 
 Daylight was entirely excluded ; and a row of gas- 
 burners along the front of the galleries, two on the 
 platform, and two large candelabra of candles also on
 
 230 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 the platform, supplied its place with a calm, subdued, 
 yet unnatural light, which deepened the solemn effect 
 of the whole scene. The spirit of silence and rever- 
 ence pervaded the Hall, so that, at noon, when ladies 
 were admitted, the side galleries devoted to them were 
 filled, with little sound. Soon after, the musicians and 
 singers took their places in the east gallery, adding 
 to the picturesqueness and peculiarity of the scene, by 
 moving about with lighted candles, which brought out 
 some objects and made shadows deeper. 
 
 At a little before two, the music of the escort was 
 heard approaching, and the Marshals, having charge of 
 the Hall, ranged themselves at the door. The band of 
 the Germanians breathed forth Handel's solemn march 
 in Saul; and slowly, as if entering a mausoleum, the 
 first division of the procession came in. Gradually, 
 noiselessly, the numbers increased, so gradually, that 
 groups stood separately a moment or two gazing round 
 at the unaccustomed sight, the funeral hangings, 
 the dim galleries, closely filled with undistinguishable 
 figures, the circle of lights, and that majestic form 
 which, from the canvas even, seemed ready to speak in 
 words of wisdom and power. Slowly and reverently 
 the multitude increased. The rapid rush, the noisy 
 step, the loud exclamation, so familiar on that floor, 
 were wholly absent. The entire space was soon filled, 
 and a motionless sea of heads was turned to the 
 platform, while a prayer was offered by the Rev. 
 Dr. Lothrop. The Handel and Haydn Society then 
 chanted one of Handel's anthems. At its conclusion, 
 the eulogy was pronounced by Mr. Hillard ; and, 
 after a benediction, the audience dispersed.
 
 MR. HILLAKD'S EULOGY.
 
 CITY OF BOSTON. 
 
 IN COMMON COUNCIL, Dec. 2, 1852. 
 
 Ordered, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to the Hon. GEORGE 
 S. HILLARD, for the eloquent, impressive, and instructive Eulogy on the Life 
 and Services of the Honorable Daniel "Webster, late Secretary of State of the 
 United States, which was delivered in Faneuil Hall before the Government and 
 citizens of Boston, on the 30th ultimo ; and that he be requested to furnish a 
 copy for publication. 
 
 Sent up for concurrence. 
 
 HENRY J. GARDNER, President. 
 
 IN BOARD OF MAYOR AND ALDERMEN, Dec. 4, 1852. 
 
 Passed in concurrence. 
 
 BENJAMIN SEAVER, Mayor. 
 A true copy. Attest. 
 
 SAMUEL F. MCCLEARY, JR., City Clerk.
 
 EULOGY. 
 
 IT is now twenty-six years since the heart of the 
 nation was so deeply moved by the death of two great 
 founders of the Republic, on the fiftieth anniversary 
 of the day when its independence was declared. Then, 
 for the first time, these consecrated walls wore the 
 weeds of mourning. Then the multitude that filled 
 this hall were addressed by a man, whose thoughts 
 rose without effort to the height of his great theme. 
 He seemed inspired by the occasion, and he looked 
 and spoke like one on whom the mantle of some as- 
 cended prophet had at that moment fallen. He lifted 
 up and bore aloft his audience on the wings of his 
 mighty eloquence. His words fell upon his hearers with 
 irresistible, subduing power, and their hearts poured 
 themselves forth in one deep and strong tide of 
 patriotic and reverential feeling. 
 
 And now he, that was then so full of life and power, 
 has gone to join the patriots whom he commemo- 
 rated. Webster is no more than Adams and Jefferson. 
 The people, that then came to listen to him, are now 
 
 30
 
 234 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 here to mourn for him. His voice of wisdom and elo- 
 quence is silent. The arm on which a nation leaned is 
 stark and cold. That heroic form is given back to the 
 dust. We, that delighted to honor him in life, are 
 now here to honor him in death. One circle of duties 
 is ended and another is begun. We can no longer 
 give him our confidence, our support, our suffrages ; 
 but memory and gratitude are still left to us. As he 
 has not lived for himself alone, so he has not died for 
 himself alone. The services of his life are crowned 
 and sealed with the benediction of his death. So long 
 as a man remains upon earth, his life is a fragment. 
 It is exposed to chance and change, to the shocks of 
 fate and the assaults of trial. But the end crowns 
 the work. A career that is closed becomes a firm 
 possession and a completed power. The arch is im- 
 perfect till the hand of death has fixed the keystone. 
 The custom of honoring great public benefactors by 
 these solemn observances is natural, just, and wise. 
 But the tributes and testimonials which we offer to 
 departed worth, are for the living, and not for the 
 dead. Eulogies, monuments, and statues can add no- 
 thing to the peace and joy of that serene sphere, into 
 which the great and good, who have finished their 
 earthly career, have passed. But these expressions and 
 memorials do good to those from whom they flow. 
 They lift us above the region of low cares and selfish 
 struggles. They link the present to the past, and the 
 world of sense to the world of thought. They break 
 the common course of life with feelings brought from 
 a higher region. Who can measure the effect of a 
 scene like this, these mourning walls, these sad-
 
 EULOGY. 235 
 
 dened faces, those solemn strains of music ? The seed 
 of a deep emotion here planted, may ripen into the 
 fruit of noble action. 
 
 A great man is a gift, in some measure, a revela- 
 tion of God. A great man, living for high ends, is 
 the divinest thing that can be seen on earth. The 
 value and interest of history are derived chiefly from 
 the lives and services of the eminent men whom it 
 commemorates. Indeed, without these, there would be 
 no such thing as history, and the progress of a nation 
 would be as little worth recording, as the march of a 
 trading caravan across a desert. The death of Mr. 
 Webster is too recent, and he was taken away too 
 suddenly from a sphere of wide and great influence, 
 for the calm verdict of history to be passed upon him, 
 and an accurate gauge to be taken of his works and 
 his claims. But all men, whatever may have been the 
 countenance they turned towards him in life, now feel 
 that he was a man of the highest order of greatness, 
 and that whatever of power, faculty, and knowledge 
 there was in him, was given freely, heartily, and faith- 
 fully, during a long course of years, to the service of 
 his country. He, who in the judgment of all, was a 
 great man and a great patriot^ not only deserves these 
 honors at our hands, but it would be disgraceful in us 
 to withhold them. We, among whom he lived, who 
 felt the power of his magnificent presence, his brow, 
 his eye, his voice, his bearing, can never put him 
 anywhere but in the front rank of the great men of 
 all time. In running along the line of statesmen and 
 orators, we light upon the name of no one to whom 
 we are willing to admit his inferiority.
 
 236 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 The theory that a great man is merely the product 
 of his age, is rejected by the common sense and com- 
 mon observation of mankind. The power that guides 
 large masses of men, and shapes the channels in which 
 the energies of a great people flow, is something more 
 than a mere aggregate of derivative forces. It is a 
 compound product, in which the genius of the man is 
 one element, and the sphere opened to him by the 
 character of his age and the institutions of his coun- 
 try, is another. In the case of Mr. Webster, we have 
 a full cooperation of these two elements. Not only 
 did he find opportunities for his great powers, but the 
 events of his life, and the discipline through which he 
 passed, were well fitted to train him up to that com- 
 manding intellectual stature, and perfect intellectual 
 symmetry, which have made him so admirable, so emi- 
 nent, and so useful a person. 
 
 He was fortunate in the accident^ or rather the 
 providence, of his birth. His father was a man of 
 uncommon strength of mind and worth of character, 
 who had served his country faithfully in trying times, 
 and earned, in a high degree, the respect and confi- 
 dence of his neighbors a man of a large and loving 
 heart, whose efforts and sacrifices for his children were 
 repaid by them with most affectionate veneration. 
 The energy and good sense of his mother exerted a 
 strong influence upon the minds and characters of 
 her children. He was born to the discipline of po- 
 verty; but a poverty such as braces and stimulates, 
 not such as crushes and paralyzes. The region in 
 which his boyhood was passed was new and wild, 
 books were not easy to be had, schools were only an.
 
 EULOGY. 237 
 
 occasional privilege, and intercourse with the more 
 settled parts of the country was difficult and rare. 
 But this scarcity of mental food and mental excite- 
 ment had its advantages, and his training was good, 
 however imperfect his teaching might have been. His 
 labors upon the farm helped to form that vigorous 
 constitution which enabled him to sustain the im- 
 mense pressure of cares and duties laid upon him in 
 after years. Such books as he could procure were 
 read with the whole heart and the whole mind. The 
 conversation of a household, presided over by a strong- 
 minded father, and a sensible, loving mother, helped 
 to train the faculties of the younger members of the 
 family. Nor were their winter evenings wanting in 
 topics which had a fresher interest than any which 
 books could furnish. There were stirring tales of the 
 revolutionary struggle, and the old French war, in 
 both of which his father had taken a part, with mov- 
 ing traditions of the hardships and perils of border 
 life, and harrowing narratives of Indian captivity, all 
 of which sunk deep into the heart of the impressible 
 boy. The ample page of nature was ever before his 
 eyes, not beautiful or picturesque, but stern, wild, 
 and solitary, covered with a primeval forest, in winter, 
 swept over by tremendous storms, but in summer, 
 putting on a short-lived grace, and in autumn, glow- 
 ing with an imperial pomp of coloring. In the deep, 
 lonely woods, by the rushing streams, under the frosty 
 stars of winter, the musing boy gathered food for his 
 growing mind. There, to him, the mighty mother un- 
 veiled her awful face, and there, we may be sure, that 
 the dauntless child stretched forth his hands and smiled.
 
 238 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 We feel a pensive pleasure in calling up the image 
 of this slender, dark-browed, brightreyed youth, going 
 forth in the morning of life to sow the seed of future 
 years. A loving brother, and a loving and dutiful 
 son, he is cheerful under privation, and patient under 
 restraint. Whatever work he finds to do, whether 
 with the brain or the hand, he does it with all his 
 might. He opens his mind to every ray of know- 
 ledge that breaks in upon him. Every step is a pro- 
 gress, and every blow removes an obstacle. Onward, 
 ever onward, he moves ; borne " against the wind, 
 against the tide," by an impulse self-derived and self- 
 sustained. He makes friends, awakens interest, in- 
 spires hopes. Thus, with these good angels about 
 him, he passes from boyhood to youth, and from youth 
 to early manhood. The school and the college have 
 given him what they had to give; an excellent pro- 
 fessional training has been secured; and now, with a 
 vigorous frame, and a spirit patient of labor, with 
 manly self-reliance, and a heart glowing with gene- 
 rous ambition and warm affections, the man, Daniel 
 Webster, steps forth into the arena of life. 
 
 From this point his progress follows a natural law 
 of growth, and every advance is justified and explain- 
 ed by what had gone before. For every thing that 
 he gains he has a perfect title to show. He is borne 
 on by no fortunate accidents. The increase of his in- 
 fluence keeps no more than pace with the growth of 
 his mind, and the development of his character. He 
 is diligent in his calling, and faithful to the interests 
 intrusted to his charge. His professional bearing is 
 manly and elevated. He has the confidence of the
 
 EL'LOGT. 239 
 
 court, and the ear of the jury, and has fairly earned 
 them both. His business increases, his reputation is 
 extended, and he becomes a marked man. He is not 
 only equal to every occasion, but he always leaves the 
 impression of having power in reserve, and of being 
 capable of still greater efforts. What he does is ju- 
 dicious, and what he says is wise. He is not obliged 
 to retrace his steps or qualify his statements. He 
 blends the dignity and self-command of mature life 
 with the ardor and energy of youth. To such a man, 
 in our country, public life becomes a sort of neces- 
 sity. A brief service in Congress wins for him the 
 respect and admiration of the leading men of the 
 whole Union, who see, with astonishment, in a young- 
 New Hampshire lawyer, the large views of a ripe 
 statesman, and a generous and comprehensive tone of 
 discussion, free alike from party bias and sectional 
 narrowness. A removal to the metropolis of New 
 England brings increase of professional opportunity, 
 and in a few years he stands at the head of the Bar 
 of the whole country. Public life is again thrust upon 
 him, and, at one stride, he moves to the foremost rank 
 of influence and consideration. His prodigious powers 
 of argument and eloquence, freely given to an admi- 
 nistration opposed to him in politics, crush a dan- 
 gerous political heresy, and kindle a deeper national 
 sentiment. The whole land rings with his name and 
 praise, and foreign nations take up and prolong the 
 sound. Every year brings higher trusts, weightier re- 
 sponsibilities, wider influence, until his country reposes 
 in the shadow of his wisdom, and the power that pro- 
 ceeds from his mind and character becomes one of
 
 240 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 the controlling forces in the movements and relations 
 of the civilized world. 
 
 To trace, step by step, the incidents of such a 
 career, would far transcend the limits of a discourse 
 like this, and of all places, it is least needed here. 
 Judging of him by what he was, as well as by what 
 he did, and analyzing the aggregate of his powers, 
 we observe that his life moves in three distinct paths 
 of greatness. He was a great lawyer, a great states- 
 man, and a great writer. The gifts and training, 
 which make a man eminent in any one of these de- 
 partments, are by no means identical with those which 
 make him eminent in any other. Very few have at- 
 tained high rank in any two ; and the distinction 
 which Mr. Webster reached in all the three is almost 
 without a parallel in history. 
 
 He was, from the beginning, more or less occupied 
 with public affairs, and he continued to the last to 
 be a practising lawyer j but, as regards these two 
 spheres of action, his life may be divided into two 
 distinct portions. From his twenty-third to his forty- 
 first year, the practice of the law was his primary 
 occupation and interest, but from the latter period 
 to his death, it was secondary to his labors as a legis- 
 lator and statesman. Of his eminence in the law 
 meaning the law as administered in the ordinary tri- 
 bunals of the country, without reference, for the pre- 
 sent, to constitutional questions there is but one 
 opinion among competent judges. Some may have 
 excelled him in a single faculty or accomplishment, 
 but in the combination of qualities which the law 
 requires, no man of his time was on the whole equal
 
 EULOGY. 241 
 
 to him. He was a safe counsellor and a powerful 
 advocate ; thorough in the preparation of causes and 
 judicious in the management of them ; quick, far- 
 seeing, cautious, and bold. His addresses to the jury 
 were simple, manly, and direct ; presenting the strong 
 points of the case in a strong way, appealing to 
 the reason and the conscience, and not to passions 
 and prejudices ; and never weakened by over-state- 
 ment. He laid his own mind fairly along-side that 
 of the jury, and won their confidence by his sincere 
 way of dealing with them. He had the wisdom to cease 
 speaking when he had come to an end. His most 
 conspicuous power was his clearness of statement. He 
 threw upon every subject a light like that of the sun 
 at noonday. His mind, by an unerring instinct, sepa- 
 rated the important from the unimportant facts in a 
 complicated case, and so presented the former, that he 
 was really making a powerful and persuasive argu- 
 ment, when he seemed to be only telling a plain 
 story in a plain way. The transparency of the stream 
 veiled its depth ; and its depth concealed its rapid 
 flow. His legal learning was accurate and perfectly 
 at command, and he had made himself master of some 
 difficult branches of law, such as special pleading and 
 the law of real property, but the memory of some of 
 his contemporaries was more richly stored with cases. 
 From his remarkable powers of generalization, his ele- 
 mentary reading had filled his mind with principles, 
 and he examined the questions that arose, by the 
 light of these principles, and then sought in the books 
 for cases to confirm the views which he had reached 
 by reflection. He never resorted to stratagems and 
 
 31
 
 242 WEBSTER 'MEMORIAL. 
 
 surprises, nor did he let his zeal for his client run 
 away with his self-respect. His judgment was so 
 clear, and his moral sense so strong, that he never 
 could help discriminating between a good cause and 
 a bad one ; nor betraying to a close observer when 
 he was arguing against what was his own judgment 
 of his case. His manner was admirable, especially for 
 its repose, an effective quality in an advocate, from 
 the consciousness of strength which it implies. The 
 uniform respect with which he treated the bench 
 should not be omitted, in summing up his merits 
 as a lawyer. 
 
 The exclusive practice of the law is not held to be 
 the best preparation for public life. Not only does 
 it invigorate without expanding not only does it 
 narrow at the same time that it sharpens but the 
 custom, of addressing juries begets a habit of over- 
 statement, which is a great defect in a public speaker, 
 and the mind, that is constantly occupied in looking 
 at one side of a disputed question, is apt to forget 
 that it has two. Great minds triumph over these 
 influences, but it is because they never fail, sooner 
 or later, to overleap the formal barriers of the law. 
 Had Mr. Webster been born in England, and edu- 
 cated to the bar, his pow y ers could never have been 
 confined to Westminster Hall. He would have been 
 taken up and borne into Parliament by an irresistible 
 tide of public opinion. Born where he was, it would 
 have been the greatest of misfortunes, if he had nar- 
 rowed his mind and given up to his clients the 
 genius that was meant for the whole country and all 
 time. Admirably as he put a case to the jury, or
 
 EULOGY. 243 
 
 argued it to the court, it was impossible not to feel 
 that in many instances an inferior person would have 
 done it nearly or quite as well ; and sometimes the 
 disproportion between the man and the work was so 
 great, that it reminded one of the task given to 
 Michael Angelo, to make a statue of snow. 
 
 His advancing reputation, however, soon led him 
 into a class of cases, the peculiar growth of the insti- 
 tutions of his country, and admirably fitted to train a 
 lawyer for public life, because, though legal in their 
 form, they involve great questions of politics and go- 
 vernment. The system under which we live is, in 
 many respects, without a precedent. Singularly com- 
 plicated in its arrangements, embracing a general go- 
 vernment of limited and delegated powers, organized 
 by an interfusion of separate sovereignties, all with 
 written constitutions to be interpreted and reconciled, 
 the imperfection of human language and the strength 
 of human passion, leaving a wide margin for warring 
 opinions, it is obvious to any person of political ex- 
 perience, that many grave questions, both of construc- 
 tion and conflicting jurisdiction, must arise, requiring 
 wisdom and authority for their adjustment. Especially 
 must this be the case in a country like ours, of such 
 great extent, with such immense material resources, 
 and inhabited by so enterprising and energetic a peo- 
 ple. It was a fortunate, may we not say a providen- 
 tial circumstance, that the growth of the country 
 begun to devolve upon the Supreme Court of the 
 United States the consideration of this class of ques- 
 tions, just at the time when Mr. Webster, in his ripe 
 manhood, was able to give them the benefit of his
 
 244 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 extraordinary powers of argument and analysis. Pre- 
 vious to the Dartmouth College case, in 1818, not 
 many important constitutional questions had come be- 
 fore the court> and, since that time, the great lawyer, 
 who then 'broke upon them with so astonishing a blaze 
 of learning and logic, has exerted a commanding in- 
 fluence in shaping that system of constitutional law 
 almost a supplementary Constitution which has con- 
 tributed so much to our happiness and prosperity. 
 Great as is our debt of gratitude to such judges as 
 Marshall and Story, it is hardly less great to such a 
 lawyer as Mr. Webster. None would have been more 
 ready than these eminent magistrates, to acknowledge 
 the assistance they had derived from his masterly ar- 
 guments. 
 
 In the discussion of constitutional questions, the 
 mind of this great man found a most congenial em- 
 ployment. Here, books, cases, and precedents are of 
 comparatively little value. We must ascend to first 
 principles, and be guided by the light of pure reason. 
 Not only is a chain of logical deduction to be fashion- 
 ed, but its links must first be forged. Geometry 
 itself hardly leads the mind into a region of more ab- 
 stract and essential truth. In these calm heights of 
 speculation and analysis, the genius of Mr. Webster 
 moved with natural and majestic sweep. Breaking 
 away from precedents and details, and soaring above 
 the flight of eloquence, it saw the forms of truth in 
 the colorless light and tranquil air of reason. When 
 we dream of intelligences higher than man, we ima- 
 gine their faculties exercised in serene inquisitions like 
 these, not spurred by ambition not kindled by
 
 EULOGY. 245 
 
 passion roused by no motive but the love of truth, 
 and seeking no reward but the possession of it. 
 
 The respect which has been paid to the decisions of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States is one of 
 the signs of hope for the future, which are not to be 
 overlooked in our desponding moods. The visitor in 
 Washington sees a few grave men, in an unpretend- 
 ing room, surrounded by none of the symbols of com- 
 mand. Some one of them, in a quiet voice, reads an 
 opinion in which the conflicting rights of sovereign 
 States are weighed and adjusted, and questions, such 
 as have generally led to exhausting wars, are settled 
 by the light of reason and justice. This judgment 
 goes forth, backed by no armed force, but commended 
 by the moral and intellectual authority of the tribunal 
 which pronounces it. It falls upon the waves of con- 
 troversy with reconciling, subduing power; and haughty 
 sovereignties, as at the voice of some superior intelli- 
 gence, put off the mood of conflict and defiance, and 
 yield a graceful obedience to the calm decrees of cen- 
 tral justice. There is more cause for national pride 
 in the deference paid to the decisions of this august 
 tribunal, than in all our material triumphs ; and so 
 long as our people are thus loyal to reason and sub- 
 missive to law, it is a weakness to despair. 
 
 The Dartmouth College case, which has been al- 
 ready mentioned, may be briefly referred to again, 
 since it forms an important era in Mr. Webster's life. 
 His argument in that case stands out among his other 
 arguments, as his speech in reply to Mr. Hayne, 
 among his other speeches. No better argument lias 
 been spoken in the English tongue in the memory
 
 246 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 of any living man, nor is the child that is born to- 
 day likely to live to hear a better. Its learning is 
 ample, but not ostentatious ; its logic irresistible ; its 
 eloquence vigorous and lofty. I have often heard my 
 revered and beloved friend, Judge Story, speak with 
 great animation of the effect he then produced upon 
 the court. " For the first hour," said he, " we listened 
 to him with perfect astonishment; for the second hour, 
 with perfect delight ; and for the third hour, with per- 
 fect conviction." It is not too much to say that he 
 entered the court on that day a comparatively un- 
 known name, and left it with no rival but Pinkney. 
 All the words he spoke on that occasion have not 
 been recorded. When he had exhausted the resources 
 of learning and logic, his mind passed naturally and 
 simply into a strain of feeling not common to the 
 place. Old recollections and early associations came 
 over him, and the vision of his youth rose up. The 
 genius of the institution where he was nurtured seem- 
 ed standing by his side in weeds of mourning, with 
 a countenance of sorrow. With suffused eyes, and fal- 
 tering voice, he broke into an unpremeditated strain 
 of emotion, so strong and so deep, that all who heard 
 him were borne along with it. Heart answered to 
 heart as he spoke, and, when he ceased, the silence 
 and tears of the impassive Bench, as well as of the 
 excited audience, were a tribute to the truth and 
 power of the feeling by which he had been inspired. 
 
 With his election to Congress, from the city of Bos- 
 ton, in 1822, the great labors and triumphs of his 
 life begin. From that time until his death, with an 
 interval of about two years after leaving President
 
 EULOGY. 247 
 
 Tyler's Cabinet, he was constantly in the public ser- 
 vice, as Representative, Senator, or Secretary of State. 
 In this period his biography is included in the history 
 of his country. Without pausing to dwell upon de- 
 tails, and looking at his public life as a whole, let us 
 examine its leading features and guiding principles, 
 and inquire upon what grounds he enjoyed our confi- 
 dence and admiration, while living, and is entitled to 
 our gratitude when dead. 
 
 Public men, in popular governments, are divided 
 into two great classes, statesmen and politicians. The 
 difference between them is like the difference between 
 the artist and the mechanic. The statesman starts 
 with original principles, and is propelled by a self- 
 derived impulse. The politician has his course to 
 choose, and puts himself in a position to make the 
 best use of the forces which lie outside of him. The 
 statesman's genius sometimes fails in reaching its pro- 
 per sphere, from the want of the politician's faculty ; 
 and, on the other hand, the politician's intellectual 
 poverty is never fully apprehended till he has con- 
 trived to attain an elevation which belongs only to 
 the statesman. The statesman is often called upon to 
 oppose popular opinion, and never is his attitude no- 
 bler than when so doing ; but the sagacity of the 
 politician is shown in seeing, a little before the rest 
 of the world, how the stream of popular feeling is 
 about to turn, and so throwing himself upon it, as to 
 seem to be guiding it, while he is only propelled by 
 it. A statesman makes the occasion, but the occasion 
 makes the politician. 
 
 Mr. Webster was preeminently a statesman. He
 
 248 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 rested his claims upon principles ; and by these he 
 was ready to stand or fall. In looking at the endow- 
 ments which he brought to the service of his country, 
 a prominent rank is to be assigned to that deep and 
 penetrating wisdom which gave so safe a direction to 
 his genius. His imagination, his passions, and his 
 sympathies, were all kept in subordination to this 
 sovereign power. He saw things as they are, neither 
 magnified, nor discolored by prejudice or prepossession. 
 He heard all sides, and did not insist that a thing 
 was true, because he wished it to be true, or because 
 it seemed probable to his first inquiry. His post of 
 observation was the central and fixed light of reason, 
 from which all wandering and uncertain elements were 
 at last discerned in their just relations and propor- 
 tions. The functions of government did not, in his 
 view, lie in the region of speculation or emotion. It 
 was " a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for 
 human wants." The ends of government are, indeed, 
 ever identical, but the means used to attain them are 
 various. The practical statesman must aim, not at the 
 best conceivable, but the best attainable good. Thus, 
 Mr. Webster always recognized and accepted the neces- 
 sities of his position. He did not hope against hope, 
 nor waste his energies in attempting the impossible. 
 Living under a government, in which universal suf- 
 frage is the ultimate propelling force, he received the 
 expressed sense of the people as a fact, and not an 
 hypothesis. Like all men who are long in public life, 
 under popular institutions, he incurred the reproach 
 of inconsistency ; a reproach not resting upon any 
 change of principle for he never changed his prin-
 
 EULOGY. 249 
 
 ciples, but upon the modification of measures and 
 policy which every enlightened statesman yields to 
 the inevitable march of events and innovations of 
 time. 
 
 Nor was he less remarkable for the breadth and 
 comprehensiveness of his views. He knew no North, 
 no South, no East, no West. His great mind and 
 patriotic heart embraced the whole land with all its 
 interests and all its claims. He had nothing of par- 
 tisan narrowness or sectional exclusiveness. His point 
 of sight was high enough to take in all parts of the 
 country, and his heart was large enough and warm 
 enough to love it all, to cling to it, live for it, or die 
 for it. Nothing is more characteristic of greatness 
 than this capacity of enlarged and generous affections. 
 No public man ever earned more fully the title of a 
 national, an American statesman. No heart ever beat 
 with a higher national spirit than his. The honor of 
 his country was as dear to him as the faces of his 
 children. Where that was in question, his great powers 
 blazed forth like a flame of fire in its defence. Never 
 were his words more weighty, his logic more irresisti- 
 ble, his eloquence more lofty never did his mind 
 move with more majestic and victorious flight, than 
 when vindicating the rights of his country, or shield- 
 ing her from unjust aspersions. 
 
 It is a hasty and mistaken judgment to gauge the 
 merits of a statesman, under popular institutions, by 
 the results which he brings about and the measures 
 which he carries through. His opportunities in this 
 respect will depend, generally, upon the fact whether 
 he happens to be in the majority or the minority.
 
 250 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 How much would be taken from the greatness of one 
 of the greatest of statesmen, Mr. Fox, if this test 
 were applied to him. The merits of a statesman are 
 to be measured by the good which he does, by the 
 evil which he prevents, by the sentiments he breathes 
 into the public heart, and the principles he diffuses 
 through the public mind. Mr. Webster did not be- 
 long to that great political party which, under ordi- 
 nary circumstances, and when no exceptional elements 
 have been thrown in, have been able to command a 
 majority in the whole nation, and upon which the re- 
 sponsibility of governing the country, has been conse- 
 quently thrown. Thus, for the larger part of his public 
 life, he was in the minority. But a minority is as im- 
 portant an element, in carrying on a representative go- 
 vernment, as a majority ; and he never transcended its 
 legitimate functions. His opposition was open, manly, 
 and conscientious ; never factious, never importunate. 
 He stated fairly the arguments to which he replied. 
 He did not stoop to personality, or resort to the low 
 and cheap trick of impugning the motives or charac- 
 ters of his opponents. He has therefore fairly earned 
 the respect which the democratic party, to their honor 
 be it spoken, have shown to his memory. He was a 
 party man, to this extent he believed that under a 
 popular government, it was expedient that men of 
 substantially the same way of thinking in politics 
 should act together, in order to accomplish any gene- 
 ral good, but he never gave up to his party what 
 was meant for his country. When the turn of the 
 tide threw upon him the initiative of measures, no 
 man ever showed a wiser spirit of legislation or a
 
 EULOGY. 251 
 
 more just and enlightened policy in statesmanship. 
 He combined what Bacon calls the logical with the 
 mathematical part of the mind. He could judge well 
 of the mode of attaining any end, and estimate, at 
 the same time, the true value of the end itself. His 
 powers were by no means limited to attack and de- 
 fence, but he had the organizing and constructing 
 mind, which shapes and fits a course of policy to 
 the wants and temper of a great people. 
 
 His influence, as a public man, extends over the 
 last forty years, and, during that period, what is 
 there that does not bear his impress ? Go where we 
 will, upon land or sea from agriculture to com- 
 merce, and from commerce to manufactures turn to 
 domestic industry, to foreign relations, to law, educa- 
 tion, and religion, everywhere, we meet the image 
 and superscription of this imperial mind. The Ash- 
 burton treaty may stand as a monument of the good 
 he did. His speech in reply to Mr. Hayne may be 
 cited as a proof of the evil he prevented ; and, for 
 this reason, while its whole effect can never be mea- 
 sured, its importance can hardly be overstated. Pro- 
 bably no discourse ever spoken by man had a wider, 
 more permanent, and more beneficial influence. Not 
 only did it completely overthrow a most dangerous 
 attack on the Constitution, but it made it impossible 
 for the same attack ever to be renewed. From that 
 day forward the specious front of nullification was 
 branded with treason. If we estimate the claims of 
 a public man by his influence upon the national heart, 
 and his contributions to a high-toned national senti- 
 ment, who shall stand by the side of Mr. Webster ?
 
 252 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 Where is the theory of constitutional liberty better 
 expounded, and the rules and conditions of national 
 well-being and well-doing better laid down, than in 
 his speeches and writings ? What books should we 
 so soon put into the hands of an intelligent foreigner, 
 who desired to learn the great doctrines of govern- 
 ment and administration on which the power and 
 progress of our country repose, and to measure the 
 intellectual stature of a finished American man ? 
 
 The relation which he held to the politics of the 
 country was the natural result of a mind and tem- 
 perament like his. A wise patriot, w r ho understands 
 the wants of his time, will throw himself into the 
 scale which most needs the weight of his influence, 
 and choose the side which is best for his country and 
 not for himself. Hence, it may be his duty to espouse 
 defeat and cleave to disappointment. In weighing 
 the two elements of law and liberty, as they are min- 
 gled in our country, he felt that danger was rather 
 to be apprehended from the preponderance of license 
 than of authority ; that men were attracted to liberty 
 by the powerful instincts of the blood and heart, but 
 to law by the colder and fainter suggestions of the 
 reason. Hence, he was a conservative at home, and 
 gave his influence to the party of permanence rather 
 than progression. But in Europe it was different. 
 There he saw that there were abuses to be reformed 
 and burdens to be removed ; that the principle of 
 progress was to be encouraged, and that larger in- 
 fusions of liberty should be poured into the exhausted 
 frames of decayed states. Hence, his sympathies were 
 always on the side of the struggling and the suffer-
 
 EULOGY. 253 
 
 ing; and, through his powerful voice, the public opi- 
 nion of America made itself heard and respected in 
 Europe. It is a fact worthy of being stated in this 
 connection, that at the moment when a tempest of ob- 
 loquy was beating upon him, from his supposed hosti- 
 lity to the cause of freedom here, a very able writer 
 of the Catholic faith, in a striking and, in many re- 
 spects, admirable essay upon his writings and pul ilk- 
 life, came reluctantly and respectfully to the conclu- 
 sion that Mr. Webster had forfeited all claim to the 
 support of Catholic voters, from the countenance he 
 had given to the revolutionary spirit of Europe. Such 
 are ever the judgments of fragmentary men upon a 
 universal man. 
 
 His strong sense of the value of the Union, and 
 the force and frequency with which he discoursed 
 upon this theme, are to be explained by the same 
 traits of mind and character. He believed that we 
 were more in danger of diffusion than consolidation. 
 He felt that all the primal instincts of patriotism 
 all the chords of the heart bound men to their 
 own State, and not to the common Country ; and 
 that with the territorial increase of that country, it 
 became more and more difficult for the central heart to 
 propel to the extremities the life-blood of that invigor- 
 ating national sentiment, without which a state is but 
 a political corporation without a soul. He knew too, 
 that the name of a Union might exist without the 
 substance, and that a Union for mutual annoyance 
 and defiance, and not for mutual aid and support, 
 which kept the word of promise to the ear and broke 
 it to the hope, was hardly worth the having. Hence,
 
 254 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 he labored earnestly and perseveringly to inculcate a 
 love of the Union, and to present the whole country 
 as an object to be cherished, honored and valued, be- 
 cause he felt that on that side our affections needed 
 to be quickened and strengthened. 
 
 As was to be expected, so powerful a man could 
 not pass through life without encountering strong op- 
 position. All his previous experiences, however, were 
 inconsiderable in comparison with the storm of denun- 
 ciation which he drew down upon himself by his 
 course on what are commonly called the compromise 
 measures, and, especially, his speech on that occasion. 
 It was natural that men, whose fervid sympathies are 
 wedded to a single idea, should have felt aggrieved 
 by the stand he then took ; and if decency and deco- 
 rum had governed their expressions, neither he nor his 
 friends could have had any right to complain. But, 
 in many cases, the attacks were so foul and ferocious 
 that they lost all claim to be treated as moral judg- 
 ments, and sunk to the level of the lowest and coars- 
 est effusions of malice and hatred. It is a good rule 
 in politics, as elsewhere, to give men credit for the 
 motives they profess to be actuated by, and to accept 
 their own exposition of their opinions as true. Let 
 us apply these rules to his course at that time. He 
 had opposed the admission of Texas, and predicted the 
 train of evils which would come with it. He had 
 warned the North of the perilous questions with which 
 that measure was fraught. But his prophetic voice 
 was unheeded. Between zeal on one side, and apathy 
 on the other, Texas came in. Then war with Mexico 
 followed, ending in conquest, and leaving the whole
 
 EULOGY. 255 
 
 of that unhappy country at our mercy. Mr. Webster 
 opposed the dismemberment of Mexico, provided for in 
 the treaty of peace, on the ground that no sooner 
 should we have the immense territory which we pro- 
 posed to take, than the question whether slavery should 
 exist there, would agitate the country. But again the 
 warning voice of his wisdom was unheeded, and the 
 storm, which he had predicted, gathered in the hea- 
 vens. The questions against which he had forewarned 
 his countrymen now clamored for settlement, and would 
 not be put by. They required for their adjustment 
 the most of reason and the least of passion, and they 
 were met in a mood which combined the most of pas- 
 sion and the least of reason. The North and the South 
 met in " angry parle," and the air was darkened with 
 their strife. Mr. Webster's prophetic spirit was heavy 
 within him. He felt that a crisis had arrived in the 
 history of his country, and that the lot of a solemn 
 duty and a stern self-sacrifice had fallen upon him. 
 As he himself said, " he had made up his mind to 
 embark alone on what he was aware would prove a 
 stormy sea, because, in that case, should disaster ensue, 
 there would be but one life lost." In this mood of 
 calm and high resolve he went forward to meet the 
 portentous issue. 
 
 It is not to be expected that a speech, made under 
 such circumstances, going over so wide a range of ex- 
 citing topics, should, in every part, command the imme- 
 diate and entire assent even of those who would admit 
 its truth and seasonableness as a whole. It is also 
 doubtless true, that there are single expressions in it 
 which, when torn from their context, and set by the
 
 256 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 side of passages from former speeches, dealt with in 
 like manner, will not be found absolutely identical. 
 But the speech of such a man, at such a crisis, is not 
 to be dissected and criticized like a rhetorical exer- 
 cise. It should be judged as a whole, and read by 
 the light of the occasion which gave it birth. 
 
 The judgments w r hich Mr. Webster's course has 
 called forth, were widely diverse. By those who hold 
 extreme views, he was charged with expressing senti- 
 ments which he did not believe to be true. It was 
 " a bid for the Presidency," and his conscience was 
 the price he offered. It is a mere waste of words to 
 argue with men of this class. Fanaticism darkens the 
 mind and hardens the heart, and where there is neither 
 common sense nor common charity, the first step in a 
 process of reasoning cannot be taken. Others main- 
 tained that he was mistaken in point of fact, that he 
 took counsel of his fears and not of his wisdom, and, 
 that through him, the opportunity was lost of putting 
 down the South in an open struggle for influence and 
 power. But, in the first place, it is not probable that 
 a man, who, upon subordinate questions, had shown 
 so much political wisdom and forecast, should have 
 been mistaken upon a point of such transcendent im- 
 portance, to which his attention had been so long and 
 so earnestly directed ; and, in the second place, the 
 testimony of nearly all men, whose evidence would be 
 received with respect upon any similar subject, fully 
 sustains Mr. Webster in the views he then took of 
 the state of the country, and is equally strong as to 
 the value of the services he rendered. In such an' 
 issue, the testimony of retired persons, living among
 
 EULOGY. 257 
 
 books and their own thoughts, is not entitled to any 
 great value, because the^ can have no adequate notion 
 of the duties, responsibilities, or difficulties of govern- 
 ing a great State, and what need there is of patience 
 and denunciation in those who are called to this high- 
 
 o 
 
 est of human functions. A statesman has the right to 
 be tried by his peers. 
 
 It is curious to observe how hatred, whether per- 
 sonal or political, when it enters into the mind, dis- 
 turbs its functions, as a piece of iron, in the binnacle 
 of a ship, misleads the compass. Many, who have 
 found it so hard to forgive Mr. Webster for his inde- 
 pendence in opposing them, would admit the import- 
 ance of having a class of public men, who will lead 
 the people and not be led by them, and that a great 
 man is never so great, as when withstanding their 
 dangerous wishes, and calmly braving their anger. 
 Their eyes will sparkle when they speak of the neu- 
 tral countenance of Washington, undismayed by jaco- 
 bin clamor, and of the sublime self-devotion of Jay. 
 It is strange that they cannot, or will not, for a mo- 
 ment, look at Mr. Webster's position from a point of 
 view opposite to their own, admit that he may have 
 been in the right, and see him clad in the beauty of 
 self-sacrifice. It is to be feared that this form of 
 virtue is growing more and more rare, as it is more 
 and more needed. The story of Curtius leaping into 
 a gulf in the Roman Forum, in order to save his 
 country, is but the legendary form in which a per- 
 petual truth is clothed. In the path of time there 
 are always chasms of error which only a great self- 
 immolating victim can close. The glory has departed
 
 258 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 from the land in which that self-devoting stock has 
 died out. 
 
 Mr. Webster was an ambitious man. He desired 
 the highest office in the gift of the people. But on 
 this subject, as on all others, there was no conceal- 
 ment in his nature. And ambition is not a weakness, 
 unless it be disproportioned to the capacity. To have 
 more ambition than ability is to be at once weak and 
 unhappy. With him it was a noble passion, because 
 it rested upon noble powers. He was a man cast in 
 a heroic mould. His thoughts, his wishes, his passions, 
 his aspirations, were all on a grander scale than those 
 of other men. Unexercised capacity is always a source 
 of rusting discontent. The height to which men may 
 rise is in proportion to the upward force of their 
 genius, and they will never be calm till they have 
 attained their predestined elevation. Lord Bacon says, 
 " as in nature things move violently to their place, and 
 calmly in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, 
 in authority, settled and calm." Mr. Webster had a 
 giant's brain and a giant's heart, and he wanted a 
 giant's work. He found repose in those strong con- 
 flicts and great duties, which crush the weak and 
 madden the sensitive. He thought that, if he were 
 elevated to the highest place, he should so administer 
 the government as to make the country honored 
 abroad, and great and happy at home. He thought, 
 too, that he could do something to make us more 
 truly one people. This, above every thing else, was 
 his ambition. And we, who knew him better than 
 others, felt that it was a prophetic ambition, and we 
 honored and trusted him accordingly.
 
 EULOGY. 259 
 
 As a writer, and as a public speaker, upon the great 
 interests of his country, Mr. Webster stands before us, 
 and will stand before those who come after us, as 
 the leading spirit of his time. Sometimes, indeed, his 
 discussions may have been too grave to be entirely 
 effective, at the moment of their delivery, but all of 
 them are quarries of political wisdom ; for while others 
 have solved only the particular problem before them, 
 he has given the rule that reaches all of the same 
 class. As a general remark, his speeches are a strik- 
 ing combination of immediate effectiveness and endur- 
 ing worth. He never, indeed, goes out of his way for 
 philosophical observations, nor lingers long in the 
 tempting regions of speculation, but his mind, while 
 he advances straight to his main object, drops from its 
 abundant stores those words of wisdom which will keep 
 through all time a vital and germinating power. His 
 logic is vigorous and compact, but there is no diffi- 
 culty in following his argument, because his reasoning 
 is as clear as it is strong. The leading impression he 
 leaves upon the mind, is that of irresistible weight. 
 We are conscious of a propelling power, before which 
 every thing gives way or goes down. The hand of a 
 giant is upon us, and we feel that it is in vain to 
 struggle. The eloquence of Burke, with whom he is 
 always most fitly compared, is like a broad river, 
 winding through a cultivated landscape ; that of Mr. 
 Webster, is like a clear mountain stream, compressed 
 between walls of rock. 
 
 But his claims as a writer do not rest exclusively 
 upon his political speeches. His occasional discourses, 
 and his diplomatic writings, would alone make a great
 
 260 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 reputation. His occasional discourses rise above the 
 rest of their class, as the Bunker Hill Monument soars 
 above the objects around it. His Plymouth oration, 
 especially, is a production which all, who have follow- 
 ed in the same path, must ever look upon with admi- 
 ration, and despair. It was the beginning of a new 
 era in that department of literature. It was the first 
 and greatest of its class; and has naturally fixed a 
 standard of excellence which has been felt in the 
 efforts of all who have come after him. Its merits of 
 style and treatment are of the highest order, and it 
 is marked throughout by that dignity of sentiment 
 and that elevating and stirring tone of moral feeling 
 which lift the mind into regions higher than can be 
 reached by eloquence alone. 
 
 His diplomatic writings claim unqualified praise. 
 Such discussions require a cautious as well as firm 
 hand ; for a single rash expression, falling upon an 
 explosive state of mind, may shatter to pieces the 
 most hopeful negotiation. Mr. Webster combines great 
 force of statement with perfect decorum of manner. 
 It is the iron hand, but the silken glove. He nei- 
 ther claims nor yields a single inch beyond the right. 
 His attitude is neither aggressive nor distrustful. He 
 is strong in himself, and strong in his position. His 
 style is noble, dignified, and transparent. It is the 
 " large utterance " of a great people. I know of no 
 modern compositions which, in form and substance, 
 embody so much of what we understand by the epi- 
 thet, Roman. Such, indeed, we may imagine the state 
 papers of the Roman Senate to have been, in the 
 best days of the Republic.
 
 EULOGY. 261 
 
 His arguments, speeches, occasional discourses, and 
 diplomatic writings, have all a marked family likeness. 
 They are all characterized by strength and simplicity. 
 He never goes out of his way to make a point or 
 drag in an illustration. His ornaments, sparingly in- 
 troduced, are of that pure gold, which defies the 
 sharpest test of criticism. He had more of imagina- 
 tion, properly so called, than fancy, and his images 
 are more grand than picturesque. He writes like a 
 man who is thinking of his subject, and not of his 
 style, and thus wastes no time upon the mere garb 
 of his thoughts. His mind was so full, that epithet 
 and illustration grew with his words, like flowers on 
 the stalk. It is a striking fact, that a man who has 
 had so great an influence over the mind of America, 
 should have been so free from our national defects ; 
 our love of exaggeration, and our excessive use of 
 figurative language. His style is Doric, not Corin- 
 thian. His sentences are like shafts hewn from the 
 granite of his own hills simple, massive, and strong. 
 We may apply to him what Quinctilian says of Cicero, 
 that a relish for his writings is itself a mark of good 
 taste. He is always plain; sometimes even homely 
 and unfinished. But a great writer may be, and in- 
 deed must be, homely and unfinished at times. Deal- 
 ing with great subjects, he must vary his manner. 
 Some things he will put in the foreground, and some 
 in the background; some in light, and some in sha- 
 dow. He will not hesitate, therefore, to say plain 
 things in a plain way. When the glow and impulse 
 of his genius are upon him, he will not stop to adjust 
 every fold in his mantle. His writings will leave
 
 262 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 upon the mind an effect, like that of the natural 
 landscape upon the eye, where nothing is trim and 
 formal, but where all the sweeps and swells, though 
 rarely conforming to an ideal line of beauty, blend 
 together in a general impression of grace, fertility, 
 and power. 
 
 His knowledge of law, politics, and government was 
 profound, various, and exact; but a man of learning, 
 in the sense in which this word is commonly used, 
 he could not be called. His life had been too busy 
 to leave much time for prolonged scientific or literary 
 research; nor had he that passionate love of books 
 which made him content to pass all his leisure hours 
 in his library. He had read much, but not many 
 books. He was a better Latin scholar than the ave- 
 rage of our educated men, and he read the Roman 
 authors, to the last> with discriminating relish. A 
 mind like his was naturally drawn to the grand and 
 stately march of Roman genius. With the best Eng- 
 lish writers he was entirely familiar, and he took great 
 pleasure in reading them, and discussing their merits. 
 
 To science, as recorded in books, he had given little 
 time, but he had the faculties and organization which 
 would easily have made him a man of science. He 
 had the senses of an Indian hunter. Of the know- 
 ledge that is gathered by observation as of the 
 names and properties of plants, the song and plumage 
 of birds, and the forms and growth of trees he had 
 much more than most men of his class. His eye was 
 as accurate as his mind was discriminating. Never 
 was his conversation more interesting than when 
 speaking of natural objects and natural phenomena.
 
 EULOGY. 263 
 
 His words had the freshness of morning, and seemed 
 to bring with them the breezes of the hills and the 
 fragrance of spring. 
 
 Mr. Webster, both as a writer and a speaker, was 
 unequal, and from the nature of his mind and tem- 
 perament, it could not be otherwise. He was not of 
 an excitable organization, and felt no nervous anxiety 
 lest he should fall below the standard of expectation 
 raised by previous efforts. Hence, he was swayed by 
 the mood, mental or physical, in which each occasion 
 found him. He required a great subject, or a great 
 antagonist, to call forth all his slumbering power. At 
 times, he looked and spoke almost like a superhuman 
 creature ; at others, he seemed but the faint reflex of 
 himself. His words fell slowly and heavily from his 
 lips, as if each cost him a distinct effort. The influ- 
 ence, therefore, which he had over popular assemblies, 
 was partly owing to his great weight of character. 
 
 He had strong out-of-door tastes, and they contri- 
 buted to the health of his body and mind. He was 
 a keen sportsman, and a lover of the mountains and 
 the sea. His heart warmed to a fine tree as to the 
 face of a friend. He had that fondness for agricul- 
 ture and rural pursuits so common among statesmen. 
 Herein the grand scale of the whole man gave direc- 
 tion and character to his tastes. He did not care for 
 minute finish and completeness on a limited scale. 
 He had no love for trim gardens and formal pleasure 
 grounds. His wishes clasped the whole landscape. 
 He liked to see broad fields of clover, with the morn- 
 ing dew upon them, yellow waves of grain, heaving 
 and rolling in the sun, and great cattle lying down
 
 264 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 in the shade of great trees. He liked to hear the 
 whetting of the mower's scythe, the loud beat of the 
 thresher's flail, and the heavy groan of loaded wagons. 
 The sinell of the new-mown hay, and of the freshly- 
 turned furrows in spring, was cordial to his spirit. 
 He took especial pleasure in all forms of animal life, 
 and his heart was glad when his cattle lifted up their 
 large-eyed, contemplative faces, and recognized their 
 lord by a look. 
 
 His mental powers were commended by a remark- 
 able personal appearance. He was probably the grand- 
 est looking man of his time. Wherever he went, men 
 turned to gaze at him ; and he could not enter a 
 room without having every eye fastened upon him. 
 His face was very striking, both in form and color. 
 His brow was to common brows, what the great dome 
 of St. Peters is to the smaller cupolas at its side. 
 The eyebrow, the eye, and the dark and deep socket 
 in which it glowed, were full of power; but the great 
 expression of his face lay in the mouth. This was 
 the most speaking and flexible of features, moulded 
 by every mood of feeling, from iron severity to the 
 most captivating sweetness. His countenance changed 
 from sternness to softness with magical rapidity. His 
 smile was beaming, warming, fascinating; lighting up 
 his whole face like a sudden sunrise. His voice was 
 rich, deep, and strong; filling the largest space with- 
 out effort, capable of most startling and impressive 
 tones, and, when under excitement, rising and swelling 
 into a volume of sound, like the roar of a tempest. 
 His action was simple and dignified ; and in his ani- 
 mated moods, highly expressive. Those of us who
 
 EULOGY. 265 
 
 recall his presence as he stood up here to speak, in 
 the pride and strength of his manhood, have formed 
 from his words, looks, tones, and action, an ideal 
 standard of physical and intellectual power, which we 
 never expect to see approached, but by which we 
 unconsciously try, not only the greatness we meet, 
 but that of which we read. 
 
 lie was a man more known and admired than un- 
 derstood. His great qualities were conspicuous from 
 afar ; but that part of his nature, which he shared 
 with other men, was apprehended by comparatively 
 few. His manners did not always do him justice. 
 For many years of his life, great burdens rested upon 
 him, and, at times, his cares and thoughts settled 
 down darkly upon his spirit, and he was then a man 
 of an awful presence. He required to be loved before 
 he could be known. He, indeed, grappled his friends 
 to him with hooks of steel, but he did not always 
 conciliate those who were not his friends. He had a 
 lofty spirit, which could not stoop or dissemble. He 
 could neither affect what he did not feel, nor desire 
 to conceal what he did. His wishes clung with tena- 
 cious hold to every thing they grasped, and from 
 those who stood, or seemed to stand, in his way, his 
 countenance was averted. Some, who were not unwil- 
 ling to become his friends, were changed by his man- 
 ner into foes. He was social in his nature, but not 
 facile. He was seen to the best advantage among a 
 few old and tried friends, especially in his own home. 
 Then his spirits rose, his countenance expanded, and 
 he looked and moved like a school-boy on a holiday. 
 Conscious that no unfriendly ear was listening to him, 
 
 34
 
 266 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 his conversation became easy, playful, and natural. 
 His memory was richly stored with characteristic anec- 
 dotes, and with amusing reminiscences of his own 
 early life, and of the men who were conspicuous when 
 he was young, all of which he narrated with an ad- 
 mirable mixture of dignity and grace. Those who 
 saw him in these hours of social ease, with his armor 
 off, and the current of his thoughts turning, gently 
 and gracefully, to chance topics and familiar themes, 
 could hardly believe that he was the same man who 
 was so reserved and austere in public. 
 
 But it may be asked, had this great man no faults ? 
 Surelv he had. No man liveth, and sinneth not. There 
 
 / f 
 
 were veins of human imperfection running through his 
 large heart and large brain. But neither men, nor 
 the works of men, should be judged by their defects. 
 Like all eminent persons he fell upon evil tongues ; 
 but those who best knew his private life, most honor- 
 ed, venerated, and loved him. 
 
 He was a man of strong religious feeling. For 
 theological speculations he had little taste, but he had 
 reflected deeply on the relations between God and the 
 human soul, and his heart was penetrated with a de- 
 votional spirit. He had been, from his youth upwards, 
 a diligent student of the Scriptures, and few men, 
 whether clergymen or laymen, were more familiar with 
 their teachings and their language. He had a great 
 reverence for the very words of the Bible, and never 
 used them in any light or trivial connection. He 
 never avoided the subjects of life, death, and immor- 
 tality, and when he spoke of them, it was with un- 
 usual depth of feeling and impressiveness of manner.
 
 EULOGY. 267 
 
 Within the last few months of his life, his thoughts 
 and speech were often turned upon such themes. He 
 felt that he was an old man, and that it became him 
 to set his house in order. On the eighteenth day of 
 January last, he had completed the threescore and 
 ten years, which are man's allotted portion, and yet 
 his eye was not dim, nor his natural force much 
 abated. But he grew weaker with the approach of 
 summer, and his looks and voice, when he last ad- 
 dressed us from this place, a few months ago, forced 
 upon us the mournful reflection that this great light 
 must soon sink below the horizon. But yet, when 
 the news came that the hand of death was upon him, 
 it startled us like a sudden blow, for he was become 
 so important to us, that we could not look steadily 
 at the thought of losing him. You remember what a 
 sorrow it was that settled down upon our city. The 
 common business of life dragged heavily with us in 
 those days. There was but one expression on the 
 faces of men, and but one question on their lips. 
 We listened to the tidings which came up, hour after 
 hour, from his distant chamber, as men upon the 
 shore in a night of storm, listen to the minute-guns 
 of a sinking ship, freighted with the treasures of 
 their hearts. The grief of the people was eager for 
 the minutest details of his closing hours, and he died 
 with his country around his bed. Of the beauty and 
 grandeur of that death I need not speak to you, for 
 it is fixed in your memories and deep in your hearts. 
 It fell upon the whole land like a voice from Heaven. 
 He died calmly, simply, and bravely. He was neither 
 weary of life, nor afraid of death. He died like a hus-
 
 268 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 band, a father, a friend, a Christian, and a man; with 
 thoughtful tenderness for all around him, and a trem- 
 bling faith in the mercy of God. He was not tried 
 by long and hopeless suffering; nor were his friends 
 saddened by seeing the spirit darkened before it was 
 released. His mind, like a setting sun, seemed largest 
 at the closing hour. Such a death narrows the dark 
 valley to a span. Such is a midsummer's day at the 
 poles, where sunset melts into sunrise, and the last 
 ray of evening is caught up and appears once more 
 as the first beam of the new morning. 
 
 I should not feel that my duty had been w r holly 
 discharged, did I not speak of the touching simplicity 
 and solemnity of his funeral. In his will, made a few 
 days before his death, he says, " I wish to be buried 
 without the least show or ostentation, but in a man- 
 ner respectful to my neighbors, whose kindness has 
 contributed so much to the happiness of me and 
 mine, and for whose prosperity I offer sincere prayers 
 to God." His wishes were faithfully observed, and, 
 in the arrangements for his funeral, there was no re- 
 cognition of worldly distinction or official rank. He 
 was buried simply as the head of a household, after 
 the manner of New England. But the immense 
 crowds which were there, drawn from all parts of the 
 land by their own veneration and love, formed an 
 element of impressiveness far above all civic pa- 
 geantry or military honors. Who, that was there pre- 
 sent, will ever forget the scene on which fell the 
 rich light of that soft autumnal day. There was the 
 landscape, so stamped with his image and identified 
 with his presence. There were the trees he had
 
 EULOGY. 269 
 
 planted, the fields over which he had delighted to 
 walk, and the ocean whose waves were music to his 
 ear. There was the house, with its hospitable door ; 
 but the stately form of its master did not stand 
 there, with outstretched hand, and smile of welcome. 
 That smile had vanished forever from the earth, and 
 the hand and form were silent, cold, and motionless. 
 The dignity of life had given place to the dignity of 
 death. No narrow chamber held that illustrious dust; 
 no coffin concealed that majestic frame. In the open 
 air, clad as when alive, he lay extended in seeming 
 sleep ; with no touch of disfeature upon his brow ; as 
 noble an image of reposing strength as ever was seen 
 upon earth. Around him was the landscape that he 
 had loved, and above him was nothing but the dome 
 of the covering heavens. The sunshine fell upon the 
 dead man's face, and the breeze blew over it. A 
 lover of nature, he seemed to be gathered into her 
 maternal arms, and to lie like a child upon a mother's 
 lap. We felt, as we looked upon him, that death had 
 never stricken down, at one blow, a greater sum of 
 life. And whose heart did not swell, when, from the 
 honored and distinguished men there gathered toge- 
 ther from far and near, six plain Marshfield farmers 
 were called forth to carry the head of their neighbor 
 to the grave ! Slowly and sadly the vast multitude 
 followed, in mourning silence, and he was laid down 
 to rest among dear and kindred dust. There, among 
 the scenes that he loved in life, he sleeps well. He 
 has left his name and memory to dwell forever upon 
 those hills and valleys, to breathe a more spiritual 
 tone into the winds that blow over his grave, to
 
 270 WEBSTER MEMORIAL. 
 
 touch with finer light the line of the breaking wave, 
 to throw a more solemn beauty upon the hues of 
 autumn and the shadows of twilight. 
 
 But though his mortal form is there, his spirit is 
 here. His words are written in living light along 
 these walls. May that spirit rest upon us and our 
 children ! May those words live in our hearts, and 
 the hearts of those who come after us ! May we 
 honor his memory, and show our gratitude for his 
 life, by taking heed to his counsels, and walking in 
 the way on which the light of his wisdom shines !
 
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