ular homage, with which the Greeks crowned that
of Pericles, who alone was called Olympian for his grandeur and his
power. He died with the turning tide from the old statesmanship to the
new, then opening, now closed, in which Mr. Chase and his cotemporaries
have done their work and made their fame. Twenty-one years ago this
venerable college, careful of the memory of one who had so greatly
served as well as honored her, heard from the lips of Choate the praise
of Webster. What lover of the college, what admirer of genius and
eloquence, can forget the pathetic and splendid tribute which the
consummate orator paid to the mighty fame of the great statesman? What
mattered it to him, or to the college, that, for the moment, this fame
was checked and clouded, in the divided judgments of his countrymen, by
the rising storms of the approaching struggle? But, instructed by the
experience of the vanquished rebellion, none are now so dull as not to
see that the consolidation of the Union, the demonstration of the true
doctrine of the Constitution, the solicitous observance of every
obligation of the compact, were the great preparations for the final
issue of American politics between freedom and slavery.

To these preparations the life-work of Webster and his associates was
devoted; their completeness and adequacy have been demonstrated; the
force and magnitude of the explosion have justified all their
solicitudes lest it should burst the cohesions of our unity. The general
sense of our countrymen now understands that the statesmen who did the
most to secure the common government for slavery and freedom under the
frame of the Constitution, and who in the next generations did the most
to strengthen the bonds of the Union, and to avert the last test till
that strength was assured; and, in our own latest times, did the most to
make the contest at last become seasonable and safe, thorough and
unyielding and unconditional, have all wrought out the great problem of
our statesmanship, which was to assure to us "Liberty and Union, now and
forever, one and inseparable." They all deserve, as they shall all
receive, each for his share, the gratitude of their countrymen, and the
applause of the world.

To the advancing generations of youth that Dartmouth shall continue to
train for the service of the republic, and the good of mankind, the
lesson of the life we commemorate, to-day, is neither obscure nor
uncertain. The toils and honors of th