debate with the master minds of the day, and achieved in such manly conflict the imperishable renown connected with his name.

Upon most of the questions which have been agitated in Congress during his period of service, his voice was heard. Few orators have equalled him in a masterly power of condensation, or in that clear, logical arrangement of proofs and arguments which secures the attention of the hearer, and holds it with unabated interest.

These speeches have been preserved, and many of them will be read as forensic models, and will command admiration for their great display of intellectual power and extensive research. This is not a suitable occasion to discuss the merits of political productions, or to compare them with the effusions of great contemporaneous minds, or to speak of the principles advocated. All this belongs to the future, and history will assign each great name the measure of its enduring fame.

Mr. WEBSTER was conspicuous not only among the most illustrious men in the halls of legislation, but his fame shone with undiminished lustre in the judicial tribunals as an advocate, where he participated in many of the most important discussions. On the bench were Marshall, Story, and their brethren - men of patient research and comprehensive scope of intellect who have left behind them, in our judicial annals, proofs of greatness which will secure profound veneration and respect for their names. At the bar stood Pinckney, Wirt, Emmett, and many others who adorned and gave exalted character to the profession. Amid these luminaries of the bar he discussed many of the great questions raised in giving construction to organic law; and no one shone with more intense brightness, or brought into the conflict of mind more learning, higher proofs of severe mental discipline, or more copious illustration.

Among such men, and in such honorable combat, the foundations of that critical knowledge of constitutional law, which afterward became a prominent feature of his character, and entered largely into his opinions as a legislator, were laid.

The arguments made at this forum displayed a careful research into the history of the formation of the Federal Union, and an acute analysis of the fundamental provisions of the Constitution.

Probably no man has penetrated deeper into the principles, or taken a more comprehensive and complete view of the Union of the States, than that great man, Chief Justice Marshall. No question was so subtle as to elude his grasp, or so complex as to defy his penetration. Even the great and the learned esteemed it no condescension to listen to the teachings of his voice; and no one profited more by his wisdom, or more venerated his character, than Mr. WEBSTER.

To stand among such men with marked distinction, as did Mr. WEBSTER, is an association which might satisfy any ambition, whatever

might be its aspirations. But there, among those illustrious men, who have finished their labors and gone to their final homes, he made his mark strong and deep, which will be seen and traced by posterity.

But I need not dwell on that which is familiar to all readers who feel an interest in such topics; nor need I notice the details of his private life since hundreds of pens have been employed in revealing all the facts, and in describing, in the most vivid manner, all the scenes which have been deemed attractive; nor need I reiterate the fervent language of eulogy which has been poured out in all quarters from the press, the pulpit, the bar, legislative bodies, and public assemblies since his own productions constitute his best eulogy.

I could not, if I were to attempt it, add any thing to the strength or beauty of the manifold evidences which have been exhibited of the length, the breadth, and height of his fame; nor is there any occasion for such proofs in the Senate -the place where his face was familiar, where many of his greatest efforts were made, and where his intellectual powers were appreciated. Here he was seen and heard, and nowhere else will his claim to great distinction be more cheerfully admitted.

But the places which have known him will know him no more! His form will never rise here again; his voice will not be heard, nor his expressive countenance seen. He is dead. In his last moments he was surrounded by his family and friends at his own home; and, while consoled by their presence, his spirit took its flight to other regions. All that remained has been committed to its kindred earth.

Divine Providence gives us illustrious men, but they, like others, when their mission is ended, yield to the inexorable law of our being. He who gives also takes away, but never forsakes his faithful children.

The places of those possessing uncommon gifts are vacated, the sod rests upon the once manly form, now as cold and lifeless as itself, and the living are filled with gloom and desolation. But the world rolls on; Nature loses none of its charms; the sun rises with undiminished splendor; the grass loses none of its freshness; nor do the flowers cease to fill the air with fragrance. Nature, untouched by human woe, proclaims the immutable law of Providence, that decay follows growth, and that He who takes away never fails to give.

Sir, I propose the following resolutions, believing that they will meet the cordial approbation of the Senate:

Resolved, That the Senate has received with profound sensibility the annunciation from the President of the death of the late Secretary of State, DANIEL WEBSTER, who was long a highly distinguished member of this body.

Resolved, That the Senate will manifest its respect for the memory of the deceased, and its sympathy with his bereaved family, by wearing the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.

Resolved, That these proceedings be communicated to the House of Representatives.

The following Table of the dates in which Mr. Webster was in Congress will be found convenient.

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS.

CONSTITUTIONAL TEXT BOOK.

SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS

OF

DANIEL WEBSTER.

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND.

Discourse delivered at Plymouth, on the 22d of December, 1820.

LET us rejoice that we behold this day. Let us be thankful that we have lived to see the bright and happy breaking of the auspicious morn, which commences the third century of the history of New England. Auspicious, indeed, bringing a happiness beyond the common allotment of Providence to men, full of present joy, and gilding with bright beams the prospect of futurity, is the dawn that awakens us to the commemoration of the landing of the Pilgrims.

Living at an epoch which naturally marks the progress of the history of our native land, we have come hither to celebrate the great event with which that history commenced. For ever honored be this, the place of our fathers' refuge! For ever remembered the day which saw them, weary and distressed, broken in every thing but spirit, poor in all but faith and courage, at last secure from the dangers of wintry seas, and impressing this shore with the first footsteps of civilized man!

It is a noble faculty of our nature which enables us to connect our thoughts, our sympathies, and our happiness with what is distant in place or time; and, looking before and after, to hold communion at once with our ancestors and our posterity. Human and mortal although we are, we are nevertheless not mere insulated beings, without relation to the past or the future. Neither the point of time, nor the spot of earth, in which we physically live, bounds our ra

tional and intellectual enjoyments. We live in the past by a knowledge of its history; and in the future by hope and anticipation. By ascending to an association with our ancestors; by contemplating their example and studying their character; by partaking their sentiments, and imbibing their spirit; by accompanying them in their toils, by sympathizing in their sufferings, and rejoicing in their successes and their triumphs; we seem to belong to their age, and to mingle our own existence with theirs. We become their contemporaries, live the lives which they lived, endure what they endured, and partake in the rewards which they enjoyed. And in like manner, by running along the line of future time, by contemplating the probable fortunes of those who are coming after us, by attempting something which may promote their happiness, and leave some not dishonorable memorial of ourselves for their regard, when we shall sleep with the fathers, we protract our own earthly being, and seem to crowd whatever is future, as well as all that is past, into the narrow compass of our earthly existence. As it is not a vain and false, but an exalted and religious imagination, which leads us to raise our thoughts from the orb, which, amidst this universe of worlds, the Creator has given us to inhabit, and to send them with something of the feeling which nature prompts, and teaches to be proper among children of the same Eternal Parent, to the contemplation of the myriads of fellow-beings, with which his goodness has peopled the infinite of space; so neither is it false or vain to consider ourselves as interested and connected with our whole race, through all time; allied to our ancestors; allied to our posterity; closely compacted on all sides with others; ourselves being but links in the great chain of being, which begins with the origin of our race, runs onward through its successive generations, binding together the past, the present, and the future, and terminating at last, with the consummation of all things earthly, at the throne of God.

There may be, and there often is, indeed, a regard for ancestry, which nourishes only a weak pride; as there is also a care for posterity, which only disguises an habitual avarice, or hides the workings of a low and grovelling vanity.