their lives, in their death they were not divided;" and the whole nation, astonished at the apparently miraculous manner of their departure, and in tears over the loss suffered by their surviving countrymen, adopted, with one voice, the king of Israel's lamentation: "How are the mighty fallen, and the weap ons of war perished!" There was weeping that day mingled with rejoicing. For days and weeks afterwards, the wonderful event was the only topic of conversation. Every one seemed to see the hand of God in every one of these singular coincidences. The pulpits made free use of the grand event in enforcing the doctrine of a special providence. Patriots spoke of it as a lesson to the country in respect to union. All classes had something to say of it, some lesson or moral to draw from it, peculiar to themselves respectively and appropriate to the condition of the nation. Public addresses, as well as sermons, were delivered in every section of the United States; and, among other places, as was most fit, a day was appointed to commemorate the event in the metropolis of Massachusetts. In the choice of a speaker, it is said, there was not a dissenting vote. All eyes turned to Mr. Webster. Mr. Webster was the only man, it was unanimously agreed, that could adequately speak for a whole commonwealth, and entirely meet the requisitions that the occasion would lay upon him. It was truly so; and the event justified the judgment. On the 2d day of August, 1826, which, as it also happened, turned out to be the anniversary of the day when the declaration of independence had been engrossed by the revolutionary congress, Mr. Webster delivered that address on the death of Adams and Jefferson, which, in its peculiar strain, as a funeral oration, was never surpassed by any orator of Grecian or Roman fame. It would be idle to quote from it, in proof of this opinion, as it has been committed to memory, almost entire, by two generations of American youth, and been read and admired by every civil ized people of the globe.

TRANSFERRED TO THE SENATE.

24J

During the session of the congressional year 1826-1827, there was no subject before the house, on which Mr. Webster felt himself called upon to make an elaborate speech, after he had given his opinion of the mission to Panama; and in the month of June of the year 1827, he was transferred to the senate of the United States by a very large majority of the votes of the legislature of Massachusetts. Taking his seat, therefore, as a senator of the twentieth congress, for the state of Massachusetts, with all his honors as an orator and statesman upon him, and with the respect and even deference of a whole senate around him, he could not fail to take a high rank in congress and before the country; and his talents, now universally conceded to be of the first order, and his fame, which covered the whole country, and passed over into foreign coun tries, marked and stamped every word uttered by him with importance. What he would first do, on entering the senate, became a query in the country; it was a query which was circulated not a little in the newspapers of that day; but Mr. Webster never seemed to read, certainly not to regard, what was said about him, or predicted of him, in the public prints. His own line of duty was always clear before him; and he always followed that line, turning neither to the right nor left to satisfy any one's taste or fulfill any one's predictions.

His first speech before the senate, of sufficient importance to receive the honors of a publication, was on the bill introduced for the relief of the surviving officers of the revolution. On this bill Mr. Webster made a short address, which, though to be numbered among his minor speeches, is yet a model of its kind, the occasion being taken into consideration. A passage may be quoted from it to show the singular felicity with which he could openly discuss, in a most delicate manner, such questions as could hardly be mentioned by a less skillful tongue without exciting the prejudices or wounding the feelings of sensitive individuals: "It must be admitted, sir," says the sena

tor, "that the persons for whose benefit this bill is designed are, in some respects, peculiarly unfortunate. They are compelled to meet not only objections to the principle, but, which ever way they turn themselves, embarrassing objections also to details. One friend hesitates at this provision, and another at that; while those who are not friends at all of course oppose everything, and propose nothing. When it was contemplated, heretofore, to give the petitioners a sum outright in satisfaction of their claim, then the argument was, among other things, that the treasury could not bear so heavy a draft on its means at the present moment. The plan is accordingly changed; an annuity is proposed; and then the objection changes also. It is now said, that this is but granting pensions, and that the pension system had already been carried too far. I confess, sir, I felt wounded, deeply hurt, at the observations of the gentleman from Georgia. 'So, then,' said he, 'these modest and high-minded gentlemen take a pension at last!' How is it possible that a gentleman of his generosity of character, and general kindness of feeling, can indulge in such a tone of triumphant irony towards a few old, gray-headed, poor, and broken warriors of the revolution! There is, I know, something repulsive and opprobrious in the name of pension. But God forbid that I should taunt them with it! With grief, heart-felt grief, do I behold the necessity which leads these veterans to accept the bounty of their country, in a manner not the most agreeable to their feelings. Worn out and decrepit, represented before us by those, their former brothers in arms, who totter along our lobbies, or stand leaning on their crutches, I, for one, would most gladly support such a measure as should consult at once their services, their years, their necessities, and the delicacy of their sentiments. I would gladly give, with prompitude and grace, with gratitude and delicacy, that which inerit has earned and necessity demands." Treating of the objections urged against the bill, the senator proceeds: "It

tia,

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is objected that the militia have a claim upon us; that they fought at the side of the regular soldiers, and ought to share in the country's remembrance. But it is known to be impossible to carry the measure to such an extent as to embrace the miliand it is plain, too, that the cases are different. The bill, as I have already said, confines itself to those who served not occasionally, not temporarily, but permanently; who allowed themselves to be counted on as men who were to see the contest through, last as long as it might; and who have made the phrase, 'listing during the war,' a proverbial expression, signifying unalterable devotion to our cause, through good fortune and ill fortune, till it reached its close. This is a plain distinction; and although, perhaps, I might wish to do more, I see good ground to stop here for the present, if we must stop any where. The militia who fought at Concord, at Lexington, and at Bunker Hill, have been alluded to, in the course of this debate, in terms of well-deserved praise. Be assured, sir, there could with difficulty be found a man, who drew his sword, or carried his musket, at Concord, at Lexington, or at Bunker Hill, who would wish you to reject this bill. They might ask you to do more, but never to refrain from doing this. Would to God they were assembled here, and had the fate of the bill in their own hands! Would to God the question of its passage were to be put to them! They would affirm it with a unity of acclamation that would rend the roof of the capitol !"

Such was Mr. Webster's happy tact of handling delicate subjects, of answering objections that required discriminate language, and of turning the morale, the popular sentiment, of an objection against those who raised it. In the same speech he shows his ardent love for New England, and gives another example of his felicity in turning the argument of an adversary to his own purposes and advantage, making it decorous for him self to pay a useful compliment where, otherwise, all compli ment would have been uncalled for and suspected. "I would K*

VOL. I.

not," he says, "and do not, underrate the services and the suf ferings of others. I know well, that, in the revolutionary contest, all made sacrifices, and all endured sufferings, as well those who paid for service, as those who performed it. I know that, in the records of all the little municipalities of New England, abundant proof exists of the zeal with which the cause was espoused, and the sacrifices with which it was cheerfully maintained. I have often there read, with absolute astonishment, of the taxes, the contributions, the heavy subscriptions, sometimes provided for by disposing of the absolute necessaries of life, by which enlistments were procured, and food and clothing furnished. It would be, sir, to these same municipalities, to these same little patriotic councils of revolutionary times, that I would now look, with most assured confidence, for a hearty support of what this bill proposes. There, the scale of revolutionary merit stands high. There are still those living, who speak of the 19th of April, and the 17th of June, without thinking it necessary to add the year. These men, one and all, would rejoice to find that those who stood by the country bravely, through the doubtful and perilous struggle, which conducted to independence and glory, had not been forgotten in the decline and close of life!" The whole speech, indeed, though not on an emergency which called for the greatest effort, is a fine proof of Mr. Webster's calmness, candor, and unexampled tact and ingenuity in debate. He always seemed to know and feel exactly what the subject demanded of him and he also knew how, in a most natural and dignified manner, after answering such arguments as needed only to be answered, to turn the others into an occasion to say just such things as he wanted to say, but could not have said with dignity, had not his unskillful opponents furnished him with the opportunity. His whole career, as a lawyer, as a representa tive, as a senator, is full of these examples; but the great ex