Massachusetts, to the founders of our Constitution in the Old Thirteen States, what Homer was to the ancient heroes. Their deeds would have lived without him. Their memories would have been cherished by their countrymen had Webster never spoken. But who can say that his mighty ability, his power of language, unequalled throughout the worldwho can say he has not embalmed their memories, painted their deeds in beautiful drapery, and by the might of his genius held them up in captivating form to his countrymen? Who is there on the habitable globe, wherever man is struggling for. freedom, wherever Washington's name is heard and reverenced-who is there who will ever read the history of those immortal men who achieved our liberties, and founded with almost supernatural wisdom our Constitution and republican form of government-who can ever read the history of these great men without saying, they achieved much, they performed great and noble deeds, but Webster's oratory has emblazoned them to the world and erected monuments to their memories more enduring than marble? Can man aspire to higher honor than to have his name associated with such men? This honor, by universal consent, Daniel Webster, the son of a New Hampshire farmer, has secured. Wherever liberty is prized on earth, in whatever quarter of the globe the light of our "great republic" is seen, sending its cheering beams to the heart of the lonely exile of oppression-in that land, and to that heart, will the name of Webster be held in grateful remembrance. As we cannot think of the founders of our Republic without thinking of Webster, we cannot speak of his services properly except in his own words. How many of us, in and out of Congress, since his death, have recalled his memorable words, in his eulogium on Adams and Jefferson! Hear him in that discourse: "Adams and Jefferson, I have said, are no more. As human beings, indeed, they are no more. They are no more, as in 1776, bold and fearless advocates of independence; no more, as on subsequent periods, the head of the Government; no more, as we have recently seen them, aged and venerable objects of admiration and regard. They are no more. They are dead. But how little is there of the great and good which can die! To their country they yet live, and live forever. They live in all that perpetuates the remembrance of men on earth; in the recorded proofs of their great actions; in the offspring of their intellect; in the deep and grave lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of mankind. They live in their example; and they live, emphatically, and will live, in the influence which their lives and efforts, their principles and opinions, now exercise, and will continue to exercise, on the affairs of men, not only in their country, but throughout the civilized world., A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning bright for a while, and then expiring, giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind; so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit. Bacon died, but the human understanding, roused by the touch of his miraculous wand to a perception of the true philosophy, and the just mode of inquiring after truth, has kept on its course, successfully and gloriously. Newton died, yet the courses of the spheres are still known, and they yet move on in the orbits which he saw and described for them in the infinity of space." Who can hear these words without feeling how appropriate and applicable to the great American statesman? To his country he "still lives," and will live forever. Mr. Speaker, I fear to go on. The thoughts which are in my mind are not worthy of the great subject. I have read and heard so much from the able, learned, and eloquent of our land in his praise, I shrink from attempting to add any thing more. In justice to the feelings of those I represent, I felt solicitous to cast my pebble on the pile which was erecting to his memory. They venerate his memory, not only for those services to which I have referred, but also for his later exhibitions of patriotism, in stemming the torrent of temporary excitement at home. The year 1852, Mr. Speaker, will long be memorable in the annals of our country. In this year, three great lights of our age and our country have gone out. But a few months since, the voice of lamentation was heard from the Atlantic to the Pacific shore that Henry Clay was no more. The sounds of sorrow had scarcely died in our ears, when inexorable Death, striking with remorseless hand at the cottage of the peasant and the palace of the great-Death, as if to send terror to our souls by showing us that the greatest in place and in genius are but men-has destroyed all that was mortal of Daniel Webster. And even while we were celebrating his obsequies, the sagacious statesman, the wise counsellor, the pure and upright man, John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania-the man who more happily combined the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re than any public man I ever met with the model of that best of all characters, a Christian gentleman, always loving "whatsoever things are true, honest, just, lovely, and of good report,"-John Sergeant is called to that beatific vision reserved for "the pure in heart." Let it be our pleasure, as it will be our duty, to teach those who come after us to imitate the private virtues, remember the public services, and cherish the reputation of these illustrious men. And while we do this, let us cherish, with grateful remembrance and honest pride, the thought that these great men were not only lovers of liberty, friends. of republican institutions, and patriots devoted to the service of their country, but that they were, with sincere conviction, believers in the Christian religion. Without this praise, the Corinthian column of their characters would be deprived at once of the chief ornament of its capital and the solidity of its base. I fervently hope the lessons we have had of the certainty of death will not be lost upon us. May they make us less fond of the pleasures of this world, so rapidly passing away! May they cause those who are in high places of trust and honor to remember, now in the days of health, manhood, and prosperity, that "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, . The paths of glory lead but to the grave!" XIII. MR. TAYLOR, of Ohio, said: Mr. SPEAKER: In the Congress of 1799, when the announcement of the death of General Washington was made in this body, appropriate resolutions were passed to express the high appreciation of the representatives of the people of the pre-eminent public services of the Father of his Country, and profound grief for their loss. His death was considered a great national calamity; and, in the beautiful and appropriate language of General Henry Lee, who prepared the resolutions introduced by John Marshall, he was proclaimed as having been "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." The whole nation cordially responded to that sentiment, and from that day to this, the high eulogium has been adopted by the people of the United States of America, as the just and expressive tribute to the greatest man, take him all in all, that our country had then, or has since, produced. Time rolled on, and the sentiment of his own country has, of late years, become the intelligent opinion of the whole world. And in proof of this I might cite, among others; the deliberately-recorded opinions of the late premier Guizot, of France, and the great though eccentric writer and statesman, Brougham, of England, men of vast celebrity. Our country, then in its infancy, has grown up, in little more than half a century, to be the first republic in the world, having increased from three or four millions to nearly twenty-five millions of inhabitants, and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. During the present year the nation has been called upon to mourn the death of two of her distinguished citizens,-two men born since the establishment of our independence, cradled in the Revolution, and brought up, as it were, at the feet of the fathers of the republic, whose long public career has attracted to them and all that concerned them, more than to any others, the admiration, the gratitude, and the hope of the whole people. These men-Henry Clay and Daniel Webster-have both been gathered to their fathers during the present year. When, during our last session, the official announcement was made in this House of the death of Henry Clay, I listened with heartfelt sympathy to the eloquent and beautiful eulogies then pronounced upon his character, and felt in the fulness of my heart the truest grief. As one of the representatives of the great and prosperous State of Ohio on this floor, I desired then to mingle my humble voice with those who eagerly sought to honor his memory. But no opportunity was afforded me, and I could only join with meekness of spirit and a bowed mind in the appropriate funeral honors which were rendered to the illustrious dead by Congress. And I only now desire to say, that no State in this Union, not even his own beloved Kentucky, more deeply felt the great loss which, in the death of Mr. Clay, the nation had sustained, than the State of Ohio; and the public meetings of her citizens, without distinction of party, in the city in which I reside, and many other parts of the State, expressed, in appropriate and feeling terms, their high estimate of his great public services, and their profound grief for his death. And now, sir, since the adjournment of Congress, at its last session, he who co-operated with Mr. Clay in the legislative and executive departments, at various times for nearly forty years, and to whom, with his great compatriot, more than to any others, the people looked for counsel, and for security and peace,-he, too, has paid the debt of nature, and will never more be seen among men. The formal announcement in this body of the death of Daniel Webster has elicited just and eloquent tributes to his memory, and brings freshly to our view the beautiful traits of his private character, and his great and longcontinued public services in the Senate and in one of the executive departments of the Government. In all that is said in commendation of the private virtues and pre-eminent public services of Daniel Webster I heartily concur; and I wish, sir, that I could find words sufficiently strong and appropriate to express what, in my judgment, were the great claims of these two eminent men upon the admiration and upon the gratitude of their countrymen. They were in many respects exemplars for the young men of |