WEBSTER 



WEBSTER 



operas which followed, Predosa and Eurymithe, 

 failed to please, but in 1824 he composed 

 Oberon for the Covent Garden theater, Lon- 

 don, and went there to supervise rehear 

 Its success was instantaneous. 



By this time tuberculosis had seized upon 

 Weber, and each day it became more difficult 

 for him to conduct the concerts and rehearsals. 

 He lingered in London to conduct Der Frei- 

 tz, but on June 2, 1826, wrote his family a 

 farewell letter, and on June 5 he died. The 

 beautiful Requiem, the last composition of Mo- 

 \\;i.s played at his funeral, and twelve mu- 

 sicians bore him to a grave in Moorfields, 

 London, while the funeral march from the Saul 

 of Handel was played. Later the body was 

 removed to Dresden, where a monument to his 

 memory now stands. BJ>.M. 



Consult Benedict's Weber; Gehrmann's Weber. 



WEB'STER, DANIEL (1782-1852), the most 

 eloquent patriotic orator and one of the great- 

 est statesmen America has ever produced. He 

 stands out in American history as one who, in 

 a time of discord and uncertainty, upheld the 

 integrity of the 

 Union and the 

 supremacy of the 

 Constitu- 

 tion. Though he 

 died nearly a dec- 

 ade before the 

 outbreak of the 

 war that was 

 fought to pre- 

 serve the Union, 

 it is only just to 



say that his ex- 



, e He was probably America s 



ample ot un- greatest Constitutional law- 



swerving loyalty yer< 



to the principles upon which the nation was 

 founded proved a source of strength to tho 

 Northern people in the great struggle, and 

 IH-IJH-I! tlu-m win their cause. The attitude of 

 Webster in the controversy between the North 

 and the South is summed up in the closing 

 words of his Reply to Hayne, one of the finest 

 examples of American oratory: 



my cye shall be turned to behold for the 



last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him 



whining on tho broken and dishonored fragments 



once glorious Union ; on states dissevered. 



rdant, belligerent: on a land rent with <IMi 



!. or drenched, it may be, In fraternal blood ! 



hrlr last feeble and lingering glance rather 



i'l the gorgeous ensign of tho now 



\n and honored throughout the earth, still full 



Miuh u(lv.m .1. it* arms and trophies streaming in 



It original luster, not a stripe erased or pol- 





DANIEL WEBSTER 



luted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its 

 motto no such miserable interrogatory as "What 

 is all this worth?" nor those other words of de- 

 lusion and folly, "Liberty first and Union after- 

 1s;" but everywhere, spread all over in char- 

 acters of living light, blazing on all its ample 

 folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, 

 and in every wind under the whole heavens, that 

 other sentiment, dear to every true American 

 heart Liberty and Union, now and forever, one 

 and inseparable ! 



Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury (now 

 Franklin), N. H., on January 18, 1782. He 

 came of good blood, for his father, Ebenezer 

 Webster, was one of the pioneers of New 

 Hampshire, and fought in the French and In- 

 dian and Revolutionary wars. Later he sat as 

 a delegate in the state convention which rati- 

 fied the Federal Constitution. Daniel received 

 the best education that was possible in those 

 days for one in his circumstances, and was 

 graduated at Dartmouth College when he was 

 nineteen years of age. After leaving college he 

 began at once to fit himself for the profession 

 of law, and in 1805 was admitted to the bar in 

 Boston. Two years later he settled in Ports- 

 mouth, N. H., where he speedily became a 

 prominent figure in law and politics. 



Webster entered the national House of 

 Representatives in May, 1813, as a Federalist, 

 at a time when Henry Clay was Speaker. The 

 latter made him a member of the Committee 

 on Foreign Relations. It is interesting to note 

 that John C. Calhoun was chairman of this 

 important committee. For over forty years 

 these three Webster, Clay and Calhoun oc- 

 cupied a foremost place in the political history 

 of the republic. From the first Webster took 

 an active part in the nation's affairs. He criti- 

 cized the policy of the administration in regard 

 to the War of 1812, urged the repeal of the 

 embargo and nonimportation acts, and voted 

 against the rechartering of the United States 

 Bank. Win n he left Congress, in March, 1817, 

 he was widely known as one of the best public 

 re of his day. 



Webster had removed to Boston in 1816, and 

 for the next six or seven years he made a great 

 record in Massachusetts as a lawyer, especially 

 as an advocate on constitutional questions. He 

 was one of the counsel for Dartmouth College 

 in a celebrated suit against the New Hampshire 

 legislature, and won the case for the college by 

 a powerful plea before the United States Su- 

 preme Court. By this victory he vindicated 

 the supremacy of the Constitution. This prin- 

 < iplo of nationalism he successfully upheld in 

 two other notable cases before the tribunal 



