CHAPTER VIII.- (Continued.) PROSE WRITERS. Daniel Webster, one of the best orators and statesmen that his country ever produced, was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, on the 18th of January, 1782. His father, Ebenezer Webster, was a distinguished soldier and officer in the Revolutionary War. After the war, he moved with his family into what was then the savage wilds of New Hampshire. In a humble house built in the woods on the outskirts of civilization, Daniel Webster was born. During his childhood, he was sickly and delicate, and gave no promise of the robust and vigorous frame which he had in his manhood. It may well be sup posed that his early opportunities for education were very scanty. In those days books were scarce and he eagerly read every book he could find. In his Autobiography he says: "I remember that my father brought home from some of the lower towns Pope's Essay on Man, published in a sort of pamphlet. I took it, and very soon I could repeat it from beginning to end. We had so few books that to read them once or twice was nothing. We thought they were all to be got by heart." At the age of fourteen, he was sent to Phillips Academy, in Exeter, New Hampshire, but remained only nine months on account of the poverty of the family. Upon leaving college, he immediately commenced his legal studies, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1805. He was elected to Congress in 1813, and at once took his place among the solid and eloquent men of the House. He served as United States Representative nine years in all, as Senator eighteen years, and he was three times Secretary of State. In 1852, he retired from public life, and died in his home by the seaside at Marshfield, Massachusetts, October 25th of the same year. Daniel Webster is universally acknowledged to be the foremost of constitutional lawyers, and of parliamentary debaters, and is without a peer in the highest realms of classic and patriotic oratory. Physically, Webster was a magnificent specimen of manhood. Wherever he went men turned to gaze at him. His face was striking both in form and color. The eyebrow, the eye and the dark and deep socket in which it glowed, were full of power. His smile was beaming and fascinating, lighting up his whole face like a sudden sunrise. His voice was rich, deep and strong, filling the largest space without effort, and when under excitement, rising and swelling into a violence of sound, like the roar of a tempest. His oratory was in perfect keeping with the man, gracious, logical and majestic. He was by nature free, generous and lavish in his manner of living; as a result his private finances were often much embarrassed. His literary works consist of speeches, forensic arguments and diplomatic papers. Of his orations, three, the "Bunker Hill Monument Discourses," the "Plymouth Rock Discourse" and the "Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson," have been declared "the very choicest masterpieces of all ages and all tongues." FROM THE FIRST BUNKER HILL DISCOURSE. This uncounted multitude before me and around me proves the feeling which the occasion has excited. These thousands of human faces, glowing with sympathy and joy, and from the impulses of a common gratitude turned reverently to heaven in this spacious temple of the firmament, proclaim that the day, the place and the purpose of our assembling have made a deep impression on our hearts. If, indeed, there be anything in local association fit to affect the mind of man, we need not strive to repress the emotions which agitate us here. We are among the sepulchers of our fathers. We are on ground, distinguished by their valor, their constancy and the shedding of their blood. We are here, not to fix an uncertain date in our annals, nor draw into notice an obscure and unknown spot. If our humble purpose had never been conceived, if we ourselves had never been born, the 17th of June, 1775, would have been a day on which all subsequent history would have poured its light, and the eminence where we stand, a point of attraction to the eyes of successive generations. But we are Americans. We live in what may be called the early age of this great Continent; and we know that our posterity, through all time, are here to enjoy and suffer the allotments of humanity. We see before us a probable train of great events; we know that our own fortunes have been happily cast; and it is natural, therefore, that we should be moved by the contemplation of occurrences which have guided our destiny before many of us were born, and settled the condition in which we should pass that portion of our existence which God allows to men on earth. But the great event in the history of the Continent, which we are now met here to commemorate, that prodigy of modern times, at once the wonder and the blessing of the world, is the American Revolution. In a day of extraordinary prosperity and happiness, of high national honor, distinction and power, we are brought together, in this place, by our love of country, by our admiration of exalted character, by our gratitude for signal services and patriotic devotion. We wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden him who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and glory of his country. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit. |