est order, and of the grandeur and glory of result to which it all tended, and unto which it finally attained, it can hardly do so in better terms, or under a better guide, than are furnished in the language of one whom it is scarcely possible not to quote upon this subject: "There presents itself," says Mr. Choate, "on the first, and to any observation of Mr. Webster's life and character, a two-fold eminence; eminence of the very highest rank in a two-fold field of intellectual and public display, the profession of the law, and the profession of statesmanship, of which it would not be easy to recall any parallel in the biography of illustrious men.

"Without seeking for parallels, and without asserting that they do not exist, consider that he was by universal designation the leader of the general American bar; and that he was also by an equally universal designation foremost of her statesmen living at his death; inferior to not one who has lived and acted since the opening of his own public life. Look at these aspects of his greatness separately-and from opposite sides of the surpassing elevation. Consider that his single career at the bar may seem to have been enough to employ the largest faculties without repose, for a life time; and that if then and thus the 'infinitus forensium rerum labor,' should have conducted him to a mere professional reward - a bench of chancery or law-the crown of the first of advocates—jurisperitorum eloquentissimus—to the pure and mere honors of a great magistrate; that that would be as much as is allotted to the ablest in the distribution of fame. Even that half—if I may say so —of his illustrious reputation—how long the labor to win it— how worthy of all that labor! He was bred first in the se verest school of the common law, in which its doctrines wero expounded by Smith, and its administration shaped and directed by Mason,—and its foundation principles, its historical sources and illustrations, its connection with the parallel series of statutory enactments, its modes of reasoning, and the evi

PRE-EMINENCE UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED.

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dence of its truths, he grasped easily and completely; and I have myself heard him say, that for many years, while still at that bar, he tried more causes and argued more questions of fact to the jury, than perhaps any other member of the pro fession anywhere. I have heard from others how even then he exemplified the same direct, clear, and forcible exhibition of proofs, and the reasonings appropriate to proofs-as well as the same marvelous power of discerning instantly what we call the decisive points of the cause in law and fact-by which he was later more widely celebrated. This was the first epoch in his professional training.

"With the commencement of his public life, or with his later removal to this state, began the second epoch of his professional training-conducting him through the gradation of the national tribunals to the study and practice of the more flexible, elegant and scientific jurisprudence of commerce and of chancery-and to the grander and less fettered investigations of international, prize, and constitutional law-and giving him to breathe the air of a more famous forum; in a more public presence; with more variety of competition, although he never met abler men, as I have many times heard him say, than some of those who initiated him in the rugged discipline of the courts of New Hampshire; and thus, at length, by these studies; these labors; this contention; continued without repose, he came, now many years ago, to stand, omnium assensu, at the summit of the American bar."

Such is not the judgment of one man only. It is the general judgment of the profession throughout the country. It is a judgment to which free expression has been given by such gentlemen as Justice Sprague, of Massachusetts, Lewis Cass, of Michigan, Senator Butler, of South Carolina, Justice Wayne, of Georgia, and by every other distinguished lawyer, probably, in every portion of the Union. Not one dissent has ever found its way to the public eye. It must, therefore, go down

io future ages, as the common opinion of the legal profession of this age, that, of all the distinguished civilians, jurists, advocates lawyers, of the first half of the nineteenth century, there was not one found equal to Daniel Webster. "I shall submit it," says his friend and associate, Mr. Choate,—“I shall submit it to the judgment of the universal American bar, if a carefully pre pared opinion of Mr. Webster, on any question of law whatever, in the whole range of our jurisprudence, would not be accepted everywhere as of the most commanding authority, and as the highest evidence of legal truth? I submit it to that same judg ment, if, for many years before his death, they would not have rather chosen to intrust the maintenance and enforcement of any important proposition of law whatever, before any legal tribunal whatever, to his best exertion of his faculties, than to any other ability, which the whole wealth of the profession could supply?" What a question is this, to be submitted with such confidence to such a tribunal, by a man, who, with the most apparent modesty, might well cherish the ambition of one day arriving at something like the same distinction! This, certainly, is reaching the last beatitude of the Roman classic-laudatus laudatis; and it should be remembered, that no case is referred to, by any of the distinguished gentlemen whose opinion has been quoted, as a foundation for that opinion, which came under the professional management of Mr. Webster after the age of forty! If Alexander is to be forever celebrated as great, because, while yet a young man, he subdued the brute force of a barbarous age, how much greater should his fame be, who, almost as early in life, made a more perfect conquest of the free mind of the most enlightened age of which there is any account in history!

CHAPTER VIII.

REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS.

In the month of December, 1823, at the age of forty-one, Mr. Webster again took his seat in the house of representa tives at Washington, as a representative for Boston. He had been elected, during the autumn of the previous year, by a very large majority, in preference to the claims of many very eminent native citizens of the district, though he had been himself a citizen of the state for only about six years. His talents, his general fame, gave him this precedence over all competition.

The year of his second appearance in the halls of congress was the last year of the peaceful administration of Monroe. For seven years, there had been but few questions creating any differences of opinion among the leading statesmen of the country. The second war with England had embarrassed the currency, involved the country in a heavy public debt, and so wounded the commerce and business of the nation, that it had seemed to be the duty, and it certainly had been the chief employment, of the first public men to soothe, and heal, and har monize the general feeling, and retrieve the results of former While engaged in these tranquil labors, the attention of the country had been called to the heroic struggles of the modern Greeks, who, on a soil made classic by the genius of their ancestors, had been contending for their faith and their freedom against the tyranny and intolerance of the Turks. The whole civilized world had felt a strong sympathy in those

errors.

struggles. England had sent her agents to watch the progress of the brave effort. France, Germany and Poland had kindled to enthusiasm in the cause of the young republic; and, encouraged by these signs of sympathy, the "Messenian Senate of Calamata," the political organization which represented the revolution, had sent appeals to several of the governments of Europe, and another of a peculiarly touching character to this country. Such were the force and power of this appeal, that Mr. Monroe, in spite of his doctrine of non-interference, which he set up for his own country against all other countries, found it impossible to satisfy the expectations of the people, or the demands of his own conscience, without mentioning the cause of the Greeks in his last annual message. "A strong hope," says the peace-president, "has been long entertained, founded on the heroic struggle of the Greeks, that they would succeed in their contest, and resume their equal station among the nations of the earth. It is believed that the whole civilized world takes a deep interest in their welfare. Although no power has declared in their favor, yet none, according to our information, has taken part against them. Their cause and their name have protected them from dangers which might ere this have overwhelmed any other people. The ordinary calculations of interest, and of acquisition with a view to aggrandize ment, which mingle so much in the transactions of nations, seem to have had no effect in regard to them. From the facts which have come to our knowledge, there is good ground to believe, that their enemy has forever lost all dominion over them, that Greece will become again an independent nation."

With a view to making a suitable response to this portion of the presidential message, as well as for the purpose of giving congress an opportunity of expressing an opinion concerning the Greek revolution, Mr. Webster read to the house, on the 8th of December, the following resolution: "Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, for defraying the expense