Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1886 — The Last Days of Webster. [ARTICLE]

The Last Days of Webster.

During my five years’ residence in the city of Boston I saw the distinguished statesman, several“furies.T heard his great speech in front of the Revere House. His voice rang out like a trumpet and he was heard distinctly by the vast multitude that filled the square and crowded the streets. I also heard him address the General ■ Conference of the - Methodist Episco- j pal Church in Faneuil Hall. The last I time I saw him was a short time before ' his death. He was receiving the com- I pliments and congratulations of his : friends in Boston. The city was alive with visitors, the streets were thronged, and flags waved from mast and spire, roof, tree, and window. Instrumental bands “discoursed sweet music, ” arid the great statesman rode in his carriage through the immense crowds of I cheering friends, receiving their homages hat in hand and bowing right and left, A great change had passed over him. He had evidently been a sufferer —a disappointed man. He did not receive the nomination for the Presidency, which he hoped towin. Whittier had scored him in a poem called “Ichabod.” Wendell Phillips had criticized his course in Congress in a sharp speech, and political editors had called him before the bar of public sentiment. When he died, Theodore Parker delivered a splendid discourse, in which the most magnificent American statesman was duly honored and honestly complimented.

His last words were, “I still live.” He lives in the memory of survivors, xvho saw him and who heard his marvelous eloquence. He lives in the history that records his great achievements as a lawyer, as a statesman, and as a logical debater. He lives in works of art on canvas, in marble, and in bronze. He lives in the printed speeches that have been jniblished and scattered over the land broadcast as the grass in the meadows. Nature does not duplicate her greatest men in a single century, perhaps never. We may safely conclude that America xyill not have another Webster. “We shall never look upon his like again.” This great man had faults, he made mistakes, he was human, although he was called the “god-like,” but I have no inclination now to make a record of his mistakes and misadventures. Even the sun has spots, btttTt is a great light, a brilliant luminary shining upon the evil and the good.— J3oston letter.