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the moment. The very greatness of the hazard exhilerated him. His spirits rose with the occasion. He awaited the time of onset with a stern and impatient joy. He felt like the warhorse of the Scriptures,-who 'paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: who goeth on to meet the armed men; who sayeth among the trumpets, Ha, ha! and who smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting.'

"A confidence in his own resources, springing from no vain estimate of his power, but the legitimate offspring of previous severe mental discipline, sustained and excited him. He had guaged his opponents, his subject, and himself.

"He was, too, at this period, in the very prime of manhood. He had reached middle age-an era in the life of man, when the faculties, physical or intellectual, may be supposed to attain their fullest organization, and most perfect development. Whatever there was in him of intellectual energy and vitality, the occasion, his full life and high ambition, might well bring forth.

"He never rose on an ordinary occasion to address an ordinary audience more self-possessed. There was no tremulousness in his voice or manner; nothing hurried, nothing simula ted. The calmness of superior strength was visible everywhere; in countenance, voice and bearing. A deep-seated conviction of the extraordinary character of the emergency, and of his ability to control it, seemed to possess him wholly. If an observer, more than ordinarily keen-sighted, detected at times something like exultation in his eye, he presumed it sprang from the excitement of the moment, and the anticipation of victory.

"The anxiety to hear the speech was so intense, irrepressi ble, and universal, that no sooner had the vice-president as sumed the chair, than a motion was made and unanimously carried, to postpone the ordinary preliminaries of senatorial ac tion, and to take up immediately the consideration of the reso tution.

"Mr. Webster rose and addressed the senate.

His exor dium is known by heart, everywhere: Mr. President, when the mariner has been tossed, for many days, in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence; and before we float further, on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may, at least, be able to form some conjecture where we now are. reading of the resolution.'

I ask for the

"There wanted no more to enchain the attention. There was a spontaneous, though silent, expression of eager approbation, as the orator concluded these opening remarks. And while the clerk read the resolution, many attempted the impossibility of getting nearer the speaker. Every head was inclined closer towards him, every ear turned in the direction of his voice-and that deep, sudden, mysterious silence followed, which always attends fullness of emotion. From the sea of upturned faces before him, the orator beheld his thoughts reflected as from a mirror. The varying countenance, the suffused eye, the earnest smile, and ever-attentive look, assured him of his audience's entire sympathy. If among his hearers there were those who affected at first an indifference to his glowing thoughts and fervent periods, the difficult mask was soon laid aside, and profound, undisguised, devoted attention followed. In the earlier part of his speech, one of his principal opponents seemed deeply engrossed in the careful perusal of a newspaper he held before his face; but this, on nearer approach, proved to be upside down. In truth, all, sooner or later, voluntarily, or in spite of themselves, were wholly carried away by the eloquence of the

orator.

"Those who had doubted Mr. Webster's ability to cope with and overcome his opponents, were fully satisfied of their

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error before he had proceeded far in his speech. Their fears soon took another direction. When they heard his sentences of powerful thought, towering in accumulative grandeur, one above the other, as if the orator strove, Titan-like, to reach the very heavens themselves, they were giddy with an apprehension that he would break down in his flight. They dared not believe that genius, learning, any intellectual endowment however uncommon, that was simply mortal, could sustain itself long in a career seemingly so perilous. They feared an Icarian fall.

"What New England heart was there but throbbed with vehement, tumultuous, irrepressible emotion, as he dwelt upon New England sufferings, New England struggles, and New England triumphs during the war of the revolution? There was scarcely a dry eye in the senate; all hearts were overcome; grave judges and men grown old in dignified life, turned aside their heads, to conceal the evidences of their emotion.

"In one corner of the gallery was clustered a group of Mas sachusetts men. They had hung from the first moment upon the words of the speaker, with feelings variously but always warmly excited, deepening in intensity as he proceeded. At first, while the orator was going through his exordium, they held their breath and hid their faces, mindful of the savage attack upon him and New England, and the fearful odds against him, her champion; as he went deeper into his speech, they felt easier when he turned Hayne's flank on Banquo's ghost, they breathed freer and deeper. But now, as he alluded to Massachusetts, their feelings were strained to their highest tension; and when the orator, concluding his encomium upon the land of their birth, turned, intentionally, or otherwise, his burning eye full upon them--they shed tears like girls!

"No one who was not present can understand the excite ment of the scene. No one who was, can give an adequate

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description of it. No word-painting can convey the deep, in tense enthusiasm, the reverential attention, of that vast assem bly-nor limner transfer to canvas their earnest, eager, awestruck countenances. Though language were as subtile and flexible as thought, it still would be impossible to represent the full idea of the scene. There is something intangible in an emotion, which cannot be transferred. The nicer shades of feeling elude pursuit. Every description, therefore, of the occasion, seems to the narrator himself most tame, spiritless, unjust.

of

"Much of the instantaneous effect of the speech arose, course, from the orator's delivery-the tones of his voice, his countenance, and manner. These die mostly with the occasion that calls them forth-the impression is lost in the attempt at transmission from one mind to another. They can only be described in general terms. Of the effectiveness of Mr. Webster's manner, in many parts,' says Mr. Everett, 'it would be in vain to attempt to give any one not present the faintest idea. It has been my fortune to hear some of the ablest speeches of the greatest living ora ors on both sides of the water, but I must confess, I never heard anything which so completely realized my conception of what Demosthenes was, when he delivered the Oration for the Crown,'

"The variety of incident during the speech, and the rapid fluctuation of passions, kept the audience in continual expectation and ceaseless agitation. There was no chord of the heart the orator did not strike, as with a master-hand. The speech was a complete drama of comic and pathetic scenes; one varied excitement; laughter and tears gaining alternate victory.

"A great portion of the speech is strictly argumentative; an exposition of constitutional law. But grave as such portion necessarily is, severely logical, abounding in no fancy or epi sode, it engrossed throughout the undivided attention of every intelligent hearer. Abstractions, under the glowing genius of

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the orator, acquired a beauty, a vitality, a power to thrill the blood and enkindle the affections, awakening into earnest activity many a dormant faculty. His ponderous syllables had an energy, a vehemence of meaning in them that fascinated, while they startled. His thoughts in their statuesque beauty merely would have gained all critical judgment; but he realized the antique fable, and warmed the marble into life. There was a sense of power in his language-of power withheld and suggestive of still greater power-that subdued, as by a spell of mystery, the hearts of all. For power, whether intellectual or physical, produces in its earnest development a feeling closely allied to awe. It was never more felt than on this occasion. It had entire mastery. The sex, which is said to love it best and abuse it most, seemed as much or more carried away thar the sterner one. Many who had entered the hall with light, gay thoughts, anticipating at most a pleasurable excitement, soon became deeply interested in the speaker and his subject— surrendered him their entire heart; and, when the speech was over, and they left the hall, it was with sadder perhaps, but, surely, with far more elevated and ennobling emotions.

"The exulting rush of feeling with which he went through the peroration, threw a glow over his countenance, like inspira tion. Eye, brow, each feature, every line of the face, seemed touched, as with a celestial fire. All gazed as at something more than human. So Moses might have appeared to the awe-struck Israelites, as he emerged from the dark clouds and thick smoke of Sinai, his face all radiant with the breath of divinity!

"The swell and roll of his voice struck upon the ears of the spell-bound audience, in deep and melodious cadence, as waves upon the shore of the 'far-resounding' sea. The Miltonic gran deur of his words was the fit expression of his thought, and raised his hearers up to his theme. His voice, exerted to its utmost power, penetrated every recess or corner of the senate