ed, firm, and straightforward; and such was the serenity of this
great soul, amid wild commotions, that the enthusiast mistook it for
apathy, the fierce for lukewarmness. It was the great calm of profound
conviction, borne up by a thorough reliance on the right--the right as
to time, as to degree, and as to resources for the battle of life. From
the day on which he threw himself into the political arena, he belonged
to the United States, and not to his native county alone. Crowds soon
gathered round one who had mastered so many difficulties, and taken his
place among the kingly men who rule the spirits whom they are born first
to subdue, and then to bind to themselves by the spell of genius.

It is well known that this man, so humble in his origin, yet so masterly
in his mind, passed through all the gradations of rank that are open to
an American citizen, up to the right hand of the highest. We have seen
when he entered Congress. In 1841 he became Secretary of State, and from
that period bore the place in American politics which would be readily
conceded, in this ardent country, to one who was deemed and called "the
master mind of the world." In his love of freedom, Webster has been
likened to Washington, or expressly called his equal in regard to
patriotism and true greatness. It is not wonderful, therefore, that this
patriot's friends proposed him as President of the United States. He
failed, and felt the failure, but soothed his disappointment by the
conviction that no man "could take away from him what he had done for
his country." Those who loved and admired him thought that the word
president would have dimmed the lustre of the name of Daniel Webster;
and they add, in regard to his disappointment, "if we must sorrow that
what men expected can never come to pass, let us not weep for him but
for our country." Others, however, were of opinion that Webster was
"rejected and lost"; while those who look deeper at the causes of events
may see, in that disappointment, the needful antidote administered by
the Supreme Wisdom to ward off the danger of too universal a success.
This gifted and ambitious man was suffered to take an active part in the
government of one of the greatest of the nations. By his bold and manly
grasp of American interests, he did much to weld the different States
more closely into one. He negotiated, on the part of his country, some
of the most important treaties which promote the peace and the amity of