the oration at plymouth first revealed the power of mr. webster. there are some men who exhaust themselves in one speech, one poem, or one story, and never attain again the high level which they have once reached.
it was not so with daniel webster. he had a fund of reserved power which great occasions never drew upon in vain. it might be that in an ordinary case in court, where his feelings were not aroused, and no fitting demand made upon his great abilities, he would disappoint the expectations of those who supposed that he must always be eloquent. i heard a gentleman say once, “oh, i heard mr. webster speak once, and his speech was commonplace enough.”
“on what occasion?”
“in court.”
“what was the case?”
“oh, i don’t remember—some mercantile case.”
it would certainly be unreasonable to expect any man to invest dry commercial details with eloquence. certainly a lawyer always ambitious in his rhetoric would hardly commend himself to a sound, sensible client.
but mr. webster always rose to the level of a great occasion. his occasional speeches were always carefully prepared and finished, and there is not one of them but will live. i now have to call special attention to the address delivered at the laying of the corner-stone of bunker hill monument, at charlestown, june 17, 1825. it was an occasion from which he could not help drawing inspiration. his father, now dead, whom he had loved and revered as few sons love and revere their parents, had been a participant, not indeed in the battle which the granite shaft was to commemorate, but in the struggle which the colonists waged for liberty. it may well be imagined that mr. webster gazed with no common emotion at the veterans who were present to hear their patriotism celebrated. though the passages addressed to them—in part at least—are familiar to many of my readers, i will nevertheless quote them here. apart from their subject they will never be forgotten by americans.
“venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation. heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives that you might behold this joyous day. you are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder in the strife of your country. behold how altered! the same heavens are indeed over your heads; the same ocean rolls at your feet; but all else how changed! you hear now no roar of hostile cannon, you see now no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning charlestown. the ground strewed with the dead and the dying; the impetuous charge; the steady and successful repulse; the loud call to repeated assault; the summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and death—all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more.
“all is peace. the heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw filled with wives and children and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its whole happy population come out to welcome and greet you with an universal jubilee. yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mound, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you, but your country’s own means of distinction and defense. all is peace, and god has granted you this sight of your country’s happiness ere you slumber forever in the grave; he has allowed you to behold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils; and he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, and in the name of the present generation, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you!
“but, alas! you are not all here! time and the sword have thinned your ranks. prescott, putnam, stark, brooks, read, pomeroy, bridge! our eyes seek for you in vain amid this broken band. you are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance and your own bright example. but let us not too much grieve that you have met the common fate of men. you lived at least long enough to know that your work had been nobly and successfully accomplished. you lived to see your country’s independence established, and to sheathe your swords from war. on the light of liberty you saw arise the light of peace, like
‘another morn,
risen on mid-noon;’
and the sky on which you closed your eyes was cloudless.”
after a tribute to general warren ‘the first great martyr in this great cause,’ mr. webster proceeds:
“veterans, you are the remnants of many a well-fought field. you bring with you marks of honor from trenton and monmouth, from yorktown, camden,. bennington and saratoga. veterans of half a century, when in your youthful days you put everything at hazard in your country’s cause, good as that cause was, and sanguine as youth is, still your fondest hopes did not stretch onward to an hour like this. at a period to which you could not reasonably have expected to arrive, at a moment of national prosperity such as you could never have foreseen, you are now met here to enjoy the fellowship of old soldiers, and to receive the overflowings of an universal gratitude.
“but your agitated countenances and your heaving breasts inform me that even this is not an unmixed joy. i perceive that a tumult of contending feelings rushes upon you. the images of the dead, as well as the persons of the living, throng to your embraces. the scene overwhelms you, and i turn from it. may the father of all mercies smile upon your declining years and bless them! and when you shall here have exchanged your embraces, when you shall once more have pressed the hands which have been so often extended to give succor in adversity, or grasped in the exultation of victory, then look abroad into this lovely land which your young valor defended, and mark the happiness with which it is filled; yea, look abroad into the whole earth, and see what a name you have contributed to give your country, and what a praise you have added to freedom, and then rejoice in the sympathy and gratitude which beam upon your last days from the improved condition of mankind!”
not only were there war-scarred veterans present to listen entranced to the glowing periods of the inspired orator, but there was an eminent friend of america, a son of france, general lafayette, who sat in a conspicuous seat and attracted the notice of all. to him the orator addressed himself in a manner no less impressive.
“fortunate, fortunate man! with what measure of devotion will you not thank god for the circumstances of your extraordinary life! you are connected with both hemispheres, and with two generations. heaven saw fit to ordain that the electric spark of liberty should be conducted, through you, from the new world to the old; and we, who are now here to perform this duty of patriotism, have all of us long ago received it in charge from our fathers to cherish your name and your virtues. you will account it an instance of your good fortune, sir, that you crossed the seas to visit us at a time which enables you to be present at this solemnity. you now behold the field, the renown of which reached you in the heart of france, and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom; you see the lines of the little redoubt thrown up by the incredible diligence of prescott, defended to the last extremity by his lion-hearted valor, and within which the corner-stone of our monument has now taken its position. you see where warren fell, and where parker, gardner, mccleary, moore and other early patriots fell with him. those who survived that day, and whose lives have been prolonged to the present hour, are now around you. some of them you have known in the trying scenes of the war. behold! they now stretch forth their feeble arms to embrace you. behold! they raise their trembling voices to invoke the blessing of god on you and yours forever.”
i should like to increase my quotations, but space will not permit. i have quoted enough to give my young readers an idea of this masterly address. when next they visit the hill where the monument stands complete, let them try to picture to themselves how it looked on that occasion when, from the platform where he stood mr. webster, with his clarion voice, facing the thousands who were seated before him on the rising hillside, and the other thousands who stood at the summit, spoke these eloquent words. let them imagine the veteran soldiers, and the white-haired and venerable lafayette, and they can better understand the effect which this address made on the eager and entranced listeners. they will not wonder at the tears which gathered in the eyes of the old soldiers as they bowed their heads to conceal their emotions. surely there was no other man in america who could so admirably have improved the occasion.