ion,
which absolutely lifts him, by its own inherent force and inspiration,
to a region above that in which his mind habitually lives and moves. At
the same time it will be observed that these thrilling passages, which
the boys of two generations have ever been delighted to declaim in their
shrillest tones, are strictly illustrative of the main purpose of the
speech in which they appear. They are not mere purple patches of
rhetoric, loosely stitched on the homespun gray of the reasoning, but
they seem to be inwoven with it and to be a vital part of it. Indeed we
can hardly decide, in reading these magnificent bursts of eloquence in
connection with what precedes and follows them, whether the effect is
due to the logic of the orator becoming suddenly morally impassioned, or
to his moral passion becoming suddenly logical. What gave Webster his
immense influence over the opinions of the people of New England was,
first, his power of so "putting things" that everybody could understand
his statements; secondly, his power of so framing his arguments that all
the steps, from one point to another, in a logical series, could be
clearly apprehended by every intelligent farmer or mechanic who had a
thoughtful interest in the affairs of the country; and thirdly, his
power of inflaming the sentiment of patriotism in all honest and
well-intentioned men by overwhelming appeals to that sentiment, so that,
after convincing their understandings, he clinched the matter by
sweeping away their wills.

Perhaps to these sources of influence may be added another which many
eminent statesmen have lacked. With all his great superiority to average
men in force and breadth of mind, he had a genuine respect for the
intellect, as well as for the manhood, of average men. He disdained the
ignoble office of misleading the voters he aimed to instruct; and the
farmers and mechanics who read his speeches felt ennobled when they
found that the greatest statesman of the country frankly addressed them,
as man to man, without pluming himself on his exceptional talents and
accomplishments. Up to the crisis of 1850, he succeeded in domesticating
himself at most of the pious, moral, and intelligent firesides of New
England. Through his speeches he seemed to be almost bodily present
wherever the family, gathered in the evening around the blazing hearth,
discussed the questions of the day. It was not the great Mr. Webster,
"the godlike Daniel," who had a seat by th