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��HARVEY'S "WEBSTER."
��point we are not so clear. Mr. Harvey- says that Webster was a temperate man, and that his intellect was never obscured by alcoholic stimulants. It will be diffi- cult to make any one who saw Webster much during the last twenty-five years of his life believe this. His appearance was much against this theory, his con- temporaneous reputation was opposed to it, and it was commonly believed and asserted that, on minor public occasions, he was not infrequently a sufferer from over-indulgence. We think it is a mis- take to try to make a saint of Webster. Great, grand, glorious man that he was, he had some of the failings of commoner clay. Otherwise he would truly have been super-human.
Another aspect of the man in which Mr. Harvey presents him is that of peace- maker. That certainly is a novel role for Daniel Webster, according to popular traditions, but Mr. Harvey proves his case most indubitably. It would be easy to believe that Webster was magnani- mous ; indeed, such was his reputation ; but that he was so forgiving of injuries to himself, and so anxious to promote peace among others, we were not hither- to prepared to credit. In all his life there are no passages that will do him greater credit than his successful at- tempt to heal the breach between Ben- ton and John Wilson, and his unavailing endeavors to reconcile Benton with Cal- houn. As narrated by Mr. Harvey, these are among the most touching incidents in biography. They disclose a far-down sweetness, goodness and simplicity that a thousand times atones for unruly pas- sions of the flesh, and bring forcibly to mind the Saviour's declaration, "'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
This brings us, in closing, to say that Mr. Harvey's book abounds in proofs of Webster's unassuming, simple and com- plete acceptance of the truths of the Christian religion. Webster was too great a man not to have an intellectual assurance of these great facts. He was
��cheerful, liberal and tolerant in his reli- gious opinions, but he clung to them fer- vently to the last. An intimate friend once asked him, in the presence of a score of others, what was the most important thought that ever occupied his mind? After scanning the group a moment to make sure that no strange or unfriendly auditor was present, he responded, " my individual responsibility to God;" and then he spoke to them on this subject as only he could speak, for some moments. We know it is not unfrequently the case that lawyers become so wise in their own conceit that as to deny the higher allegi- ance and the evidence on which the Christian religion rests, but we are not among them. If any lawyer thinks him- self wiser on these points than Daniel Webster, we cannot sympathize with him. If there are any who believe that Christ was an imposter, that God is blind chance, or a law without a legislator, and that man, instead of being created in the image of God, and a little lower than the angels, is nothing but an ape with modern improvements, let him read Dan- iel Webster on theology. Perhaps these matters are a little obiter, but really we think a little theology now and then will not hurt our readers.
We must now reluctantly leave this great man, and we cannot better do it than in the closing words of this biogra- pher : " The spot where Dani el Webster reposes is upon elevated land, and over- looks the sea, his mammoth farm, the First Parish Church, and most of the town of Marshfield, — wide-spreading marshes, forests remote and near, the tranquil river and glistening brooks. On a pleasant day the sands of Cape Cod can be descried from it, thirty miles directly to the east, where the Pilgrims first moored their ship. The spot is perfectly retired and quiet, nothing beiug usually heard but the solemn dirge of the ocean, and the answering sighs of the winds. It is the spot of all others for his resting- place."
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