mpregnable. To assail it by the ordinary method of
passionate protest and illogical reasoning, was as futile as a dash of
light cavalry would have been against the defences of such cities as
Namur and Lille. Indeed, in his speech, "The Constitution not a Compact
between Sovereign States," he erected a whole Torres Vedras line of
fortifications, on which legislative Massenas dashed themselves in vain,
and, however strong in numbers in respect to the power of voting him
down, recoiled defeated in every attempt to reason him down.

In further illustration of this peculiar power of Webster, the Speech of
the 7th of March, 1850, may be cited, for its delivery is to be ranked
with the most important historical events. For some years it was the
object of the extremes of panegyric and the extremes of execration. But
this effort is really the most loosely constructed of all the great
productions of Webster's mind. In force, compactness, and completeness,
in closeness of thought to things, in closeness of imagery to the
reasoning it illustrates, and in general intellectual fibre, muscle, and
bone, it cannot be compared to such an oration as that on the "First
Settlement of New England," or such a speech as that which had for its
theme, "The Constitution not a Compact between Sovereign States"; but,
after all deductions have been made, it was still a speech which frowned
upon its opponents as a kind of verbal fortress constructed both for the
purpose of defence and aggression. Its fame is due, in a great degree,
to its resistance to a storm of assaults, such as had rarely before been
concentrated on any speech delivered in either branch of the Congress of
the United States. Indeed, a very large portion of the intellect, the
moral sentiment, and the moral passion of the free States was directed
against it. There was not a weapon in the armory of the dialectician or
the rhetorician which was not employed with the intent of demolishing
it. Contempt of Webster was vehemently taught as the beginning of
political wisdom. That a speech, thus assailed, should survive the
attacks made upon it, appeared to be impossible. And yet it did survive,
and is alive now, while better speeches, or what the present writer
thought, at the time, to be more convincing speeches, have not retained
individual existence, however deeply they may have influenced that
public opinion which, in the end, determines political events. "I still
live," was Webster's de