CHAPTER I.

DANIEL WEBSTER,

THE LOGICIAN.

ALL honor to "The Old Granite State!" The contracted and tempestuous territory of New Hampshire has given birth to as much refined genius and effective talent, perhaps, as any State on our continent. Nearly all the heroism, moral excellence, and ennobling literature of the world, has been produced by those who, in infancy and youth were fostered by the inspiration of exalted regions, where the turf is covered with a rude beauty, rocks and wilderness are piled in bold and inimitable shapes of savage grandeur, tinged with the hues of untold centuries, and over which awe-inspiring storms often sweep with thunders in their train. This is the influence which more than half created the Shakspeares, Miltons, Spencers, Wordsworths, Scotts, Coleridges, Shelleys, Irvings, Coopers, Bryants, and Websters of the world; and without much personal acquaintance with such scenes it is impossible for a reader to comprehend their highest individuality of character so as fully to relish the best qualities of their works.

In the present discussion, we propose to consider the

leading circumstances of Daniel Webster's youth; trace the progress of his preparatory discipline; sketch his professional career; and portray the chief features of his eloquence.

He was

In the first place, we remark that there is in the elements of our humanity a perpetual sympathy with the accompaniments of its first development; the mind and deeds of strongly-marked individuals ever assimilate with the nature of their parent soil, and the impressions thereon first received. This rule is strikingly exemplified in the life and character of Mr. Webster. born in Salisbury, near the "White Hills" of New Hampshire, at the source of the river Merrimack, in 1782. His father, who was a farmer, served both in the old French war, and in the War of the Revolution. A company composed mostly of his neighbors and friends was under his command in the battle of Bennington, at White Plains, and at West Point, when Arnold's treason was discovered. He died about the year 1806, having worthily filled several public offices, and, among others, that of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, for the State.

Salisbury, to this day, is a retired, though flourishing town, but at the time its distinguished son appeared, the smoke of its few cabins went up amidst the rugged and lonely wilderness of the North. To describe the temperature of the mountainous region of his advent, it is fitting that we should employ the language of Milton in his "Moscova." Says he: "The north parts of this country are so barren, that the inhabitants fetch their corn a thousand miles, and so cold in winter, that the

very sap of their wood-fuel burning on the fire freezes at the brand's end where it drops. The mariners which were left on ship-board in the first English voyage thither, in going up only from the cabins to the hatches, had their breath so congealed by the cold, that they fell down as it were stifled."

The best commentary to the genius of a people is a visit to the scenery encompassed by which they are born and trained. For instance, the mighty gloom of the Hartz Mountains, in Germany; the robber castles towering over the Rhine; the impressive remains of antique power scattered profusely over plain, hill, and forest; the thousand commingled associations rife in every scene; the imperial Roman, the furious Goth, the graceful cavaliers of feudal times, and the thrilling conceptions of an ideal world long anterior to them all, have alike their record and impulse to the student pilgrim, wandering, or at rest, and stamp their indelible features on all the youth of the land.

The tendency of wild, broken districts, darkened by mountains and savage forests, to raise in the mind those ideas of solemn, preternatural awe, which are the stamina of the most vigorous eloquence, and the adornment of the best poetry, has been noticed from the earliest ages. "Where is a lofty, and deeply-shaded grove," writes Seneca in one of his epistles, "filled with venerable trees, whose interlacing boughs shut out the face of heaven, the grandeur of the wood, the silence of the place, the shade so dense and uniform, infuse into the breast the notion of a divinity;" and thus the ancients, struck with the living magnificence of nature, which they could not

understand, peopled each grove, fountain, or grotto, with some local genius, or god. We shall refer more fully to this point, when we come to speak of the preparatory discipline which fitted Mr. Webster for effective public life. At present we only glance at the circumstances attending his birth which were calculated nobly to imbue his character and develop its worth. He arose where the two great elements of the universe, beauty and sublimity, are most palpably revealed in the Switzerland of America. It was fitting that our greatest statesman should there meet his first struggles, and learn his first lore in the home of virtuous industry, surrounded by scenery so grand. God made the human soul illustrious, and designed it for exalted pursuits and a glorious destiny. To expand our finite faculties, and afford them a culture both profound and elevating, Nature is spread around us, with all its stupendous proportions, and Divine Revelation speaks to us of an eternal augmentation of knowledge hereafter, for weal or woe. Above, beneath, and around us, open the avenues of infinite progression, through which we must forever advance without pause, and expand in capacity without limit. Here, on this dim arena of earth, an immortal essence throbs at our heart in harmony with the infinite and eternal. The day-star of thought arises on the soul, and, with our first rational exercise, begins an existence which may experience many vicissitudes, may pass through many transitions, but can never terminate. The soul, vivified with power to think, will outlive the universe which feeds its thought, and will be still practising its juvenile excursions at the mere outset of its opening career,

while suns and systems, shorn of their glories, shall sink, in shattered ruins, to the caverns of eternal oblivion. But the soul of man,

"Vital in every part,

Cannot, but by annihilation, die."

Its two great faculties, correspondent to the two great natural elements mentioned above-the capacity to perceive the beautiful, and feel the sublime—are at once the products and proofs of our immortality. They indicate endowments which it is bliss to improve, and a destiny which it will be fearful indeed to neglect.

Dr. Clarke thought that the lofty genius of Alexander was nourished by the majestic presence of Mount Olympus, under the shadow of which he may be said to have been born and bred. If grand natural scenery tends permanently to affect the character of those cradled on its bosom, we need not wonder that New Hampshire is the nursery of patriotism the most firm, and eloquence the most sublime. Elastic as the air they breathe, free and joyous as the torrents that dash through their rural possessions, strong as the granite hills from the scanty soil of which they wring a hardy livelihood, her enterprising sons, noble and high-minded by natural endowment, are like the glorious regions of rugged adventure they love to occupy. This is an univeral rule. The Foulahs dwelling on the high Alps of Africa, are as superior to the tribes living beneath, as the natives of Cashmere are above the Hindoos, or as the Tyrolese are nobler than the Arab race. The character of individuals and of nations is in a great mea