New England Religious Herald

[The following article was written in 1844 for a leading newspaper in New-York, but the MSS. was mislaid, and the marked ability with which it is written, and the ever-abiding interest which is felt by all classes in the illustrious man who is the subject of it, induces us says the Albany Spectator, to publish it at present.]

DANIEL WEBSTER.
A PEN AND INK SKETCH.

Long before I touched American ground the name of the celebrated man whose name graces the head of this article had been to me a familiar sound. I had heard, with a hearty laugh, what Sidney Smith said of him, and what only Sidney the facetious Canon of Saint Paul's could have said—"that he was a steam engine in breeches" I had read Carlyle's description of his eyes, and had been told by those who had enjoyed opportunity of seeing him, that his personal appearance was remarkable, so I was, of course, anxious to see America's most popular orator, nor did my wish remain long ungratified.

During a portion of the time when the recent presidential contest was progressing I happened to be a sojourner in the city of Brotherly-Love, and at my great satisfaction it was announced that Daniel Webster would speak at a Whig Mass Meeting. On the morning of the day appointed, I proceeded in good time to secure a place where I might both see and hear the distinguished man.

The place of meeting was fixed in a field a mile or so from the city. A stage had been erected at the foot of a gentle slope, and the front of the grassy mound being concave, a perfect amphitheatre was formed. By dint of much perseverance and a little impudence I managed to get a front seat on the stand, and having secured my position, I sat quietly down to await the commencement of the proceedings.

The orator was to be accompanied to the platform by a procession, and soon after 3 o'clock, the head of it appeared in view-gradually it drew near, and amidst the crash of musical instruments —the clangor of trumpets—the banging of arms and the booming of cannon, several gentlemen ascended the platform and were greeted with cheers.

One of the gentlemen was the candidate for the office of Governor of the State-he was old, and white-headed : in his hand he held an assortment of flowers, and a floral garland encircled his portly figure. He ascended to his place, and after him came another gaily decked gentleman, and at last a shout burst forth, loud and long, as an individual mounted the staircase with a firm solid sort of a tread, and stood on the stage full in view of the populace.

He was a man who would have seemed above the moderate size had it not been for his bulk : he was robust without being stout, and large-boned without clumsiness. As he came forward on the platform he was cordially greeted by the multitude, and whilst the cheering was going on, and after he had acknowledged it by slightly lifting his hat. he calmly folded his arms over his capacious chest. and gave one of the most steady and extraordinary glances on the assembly which I ever witnessed

It would be impossible to describe that fixed look. His eye balls were dark as night, and the whites of his organs of vision more resembled twilight in their hue, than the pure tint which is caused by the tendenous expansion of the muscles covering the ball. They were set in two cavernous openings beneath a pair of dark, thick eye-brows which gradually rose from the upper portion of the nose until they nearly reached the temples, when they somewhat suddenly drooped, and terminated just below the huge bumps which lay on the outer and lower sides of his extraordinary forehead, just as if Nature in manufacturing him had made two receptacles there for spare brain, on the same principle that animals are furnished with bags, to contain an additional stock to adipose matter for their sustenance during hard seasons.

But I am speaking of the look. I do not believe that the searching, yet moveless eye of the individual I am describing failed to notice a single person within its range of vision. It seemed to absorb the scene. And having satisfied himself, he pulled his hat over his eyes, which left in deep shade, glowing like dull coals, in a blast furnace before the steam of air was applied.

The complexion of the gentleman was dark-very dark and swarthy ; his forehead was piled up, and in fact it bulged out, as if the brains had been crammed into it after the packing had so swollen it as to stretch its barrier of bone. The frontal satire must have been well knit, or it would to a dead certainty have gone-part of the high, broad forehead was bare; hair which had once been black. but which was now of a brownish grey, being carelessly combed or rather pushed back. The nose was large, and at the end rather knobbed, and the mouth with its thin, compressed lips indicated excessive firmness; then, greyish whiskers stretched the side of his face, which, taken as a whole, possessed a gloomy grandeur, and made me say to myself, as I gazed-That is Daniel Webster or the devil. I consider it no insult to Mr. Webster-for he it was→to put him in the same category with the spirit of evil, inasmuch as I only refer to looks, and we are somewhere told that Satan is diabolically beautiful.

Mr. Webster was dressed in a brown frock with a velvet collar, which was buttoned close up to his throat, which latter was encircled by a turned down collar and a white cravat. Of his nether habiliments I took no heed. for I could not look far below his magnificent head. I know he had no flowers—I should as soon have expected to have witnessed a giant decorated with a child's coral and bells, as to have seen Daniel Webster with a bouquet in his button-hole.

As soon as he rose to speak he was received with vociferous cheering, and having by a wave of his hand produced silence-he commenced his address; he began in a rather low, but very sonorous and distinct voice, which gradually increased in violence until it rolled its melodious waves of sound over the heads of the vast assemblage. He did not speak on a subject which admitted of poetic illustration, and I was not then sufficiently acquainted with American politics to appreciate the matter of his address—of the manner I alone could form some idea. As he went on he seemed to warm up his audience until he got them like an iron bar, to a red heat, and then down he came with the ponderous sledge-hammer of his eloquence and moulded them to his will.

From the commencement of his speech to his close there was no visible hesitation; no traces of study; no appearance of effort. His eloquence flowed on majestically like a stream bank-high -giving one the idea of rest and resistless might. Where other speakers would persuade, he dictated, yet without seeming to be over bold, and the massive grandeur of his style so commanded the admiration of his auditory, that in the broad shadow which it cast, all minor differences of opinion were lost sight of for the time, and willing tributes were paid to the graces of the great Statesman, even by those who were his fiercest political enemies.

As for myself, I never dared to look in his face during the whole of his speech and when his voice ceased, and he pressed down his hat over his shaggy brows and sat down as calmly as if he had been asking a simple question, I knew that Sidney Smith was right, and so was Carlyle.
Carlyle, and I regretted my own inability to describe as they would have described Daniel Webster while delivering a speech on American matters and on American ground.