of a lower sphere into the clear sunshine and free air of a higher heaven. But, if your Honor pleases, it was in our own profession—as a lawyer that we love to contemplate him. Most worthily did he represent the true dignity and excellence of the law; and in it did he achieve the first and the most unquestioned of his triumphs. Here, also, he won his last. His speech for the prosecution in the famous Crowninshield case, is a classic in our schools; and in the great case of the Dartmouth College, before the highest judicial tribunal of the land, he brought the whole vigor of his intellect, his resistless logic and commanding eloquence, to the vindication and establishment of the provision in the Constitution of the United States guaranteeing the inviolability of contracts. But, however great these or any other of his legal arguments may have been, it is conceded that the last occasion of his appearance at the bar, in the Goodyear Patent case, betrayed no abatement of his powers. To the last he was still himself-still the first of living lawyers. Like the orb of day, though past his meridian, he shone to the last with undiminished light and majesty; or rather, like some mighty river as it nears the ocean, his intellect, verging to Eternity, flowed on in wider and more placid grandeur. Great as a lawyer, as a Senator, as an Ambassador clothed with powers and responsibilities the most august, as the Chief Minister of the Cabinet at Washington, conducting the gravest and most difficult relations with foreign powers, and administering the highest executive functions with character, talent, and dignity-it was nevertheless his peculiar glory that he was the Champion and Expounder of the Constitution. Here, his heart and intellect found their most acceptable exercise, and here, great though they were, they found an ample field. He brought to the task a rare combination of qualities -an intellect trained to its utmost development in the conflict of the bar and the Senate-a wealth of historical knowledge and illustration-a fervor of patriotism-an earnestness and a power of eloquence, which fitted him to be the interpreter and guardian of the charter of our rights as a confederation, and which nothing could withstand. However men might differ from him, as to some of his conclusions upon the exciting questions which have divided the country-none could deny to him this preeminence and this trust. It was a sacred duty, and in more than one time of gloom and trial, right well did he do his work. And behold his reward—a reward to minds like his more grateful than any honors, any office, any Presidency. He had the gratitude of his countrymen, and he lived to see the Union and Constitution he had done so much to guard and sustain, growing greater and stronger to the last hour of his life. In his own grand language, and in happy fulfilment of the prayer so devoutly expressed in the peroration of his speech, in reply to Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, in the Senate, in January, 1830: "When his eyes turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, he did not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of our once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched in fraternal blood. Rather did their last feeble and lingering glance behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the whole earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre: not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured-bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first and Union afterwards;' but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea, and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, LIBERTY AND UNION, now and for ever, one and inseparable." Forty years, with a genius and patriotism not often equalled, had he served his country and his countrymen, when from the highest place in the Cabinet and its weighty cares, he withdrew for a brief period into the repose and retirement of his farm at Marshfield. Even then, his last official act was to avert the collision threatened on our northern waters, between this country and the greatest of earthly powers beside. Even there, in that refuge, death found him out, and with remorseless hand took from us all of Daniel Webster that would die. It is past! A good and a faithful servant, he has fought his last fight on earth. His spirit has returned to Him who gave it. There is a lamentation and a gloom in the land. In the highest realms of intellect, where he ruled with supreme dominion, there is a void. The place that has known him shall know him no more. No more shall he shine in the front of the worth, the intellect, and the patriotism of the nation. No more, amid "listening senates," or among the rulers of the people, shall be seen the majesty of his presence, his Olympian head, the front of Jove himself." No more shall his eloquence sway with magic power the hearts of men. No more shall his master hand, with conscious strength, guide the helm of affairs. No more in the thick and troubled night shall his country look to the light of his genius as to her guiding star; in vain shall she with sad inquiry explore the darkening firmament, whence that bright planet has disappeared, making it to suffer a disastrous eclipse! But, no; let me be pardoned these words. It is not for such as Daniel Webster to die and be no more. In that solemn moment between time and eternity, when the soul of man just about to shake off its earthly trammels, pierces with new sight into the future, on the brink of which it hovers, his soul, endowed with this prophetic sense, gave it utterance in the words, "I still live!" Yes, he still lives, in his great example and his magnificent services, in his genius and his patriotism, of which the light and glory are still over the whole land, and will be with us always to guide, to encourage, and to exalt-lives in the heart of his country, and in whatever else of her is most immortal, in her history and her renown, in her freedom, in her greatness, and in eternal destiny-lives, while the mountains stand and the rivers flow-lives, while the Union and the Constitution live, never to die until they fall, and the very name of the Republic is blotted from the earth. But, if your Honor please, why should I say more? What man, with words, can add to the greatness of Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, of New England, of the Union, of the world; or why should I, with my feeble rushlight, seek to show forth the meridian effulgence? From a task too great for my powers, I willingly escape, and move that this Court adjourn for the day. |