Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/99

Rh yet she looks like a strong, and by no means a nervous woman.

No one can, even in the effect which it produces, form too high an idea of Webster's power as a speaker; of the classical beauty and strength of his language, or the power and deep intensity of voice with which he utters that to which he desires to give strong effect. If this is not an unusually great natural power—for it has the appearance of being altogether simple and natural, then it is very great art. Our Archbishop Wallin is the only speaker whom I have heard, who, in this respect resembles Webster, and who was possessed of an equal power over his hearers.

In general, the speakers in this country scream too much; they are too violent, and shout and roar out their words as if they would be very powerful. Henry Clay is free from this fault, but he is evidently more impulsive and has less control over himself than Webster. Although the Compromise Bill has now both these great statesmen on its side, yet it is the general opinion that it will not be carried, at least in its present omnibus character—nay, that it is lost already. Henry Clay, who has battled for it these seven months, fights for it still, almost like a dying gladiator, and it really quite distresses me to see him, excited and violent, almost like a youth, with trembling, death-like hands, so thin and pallid are the fingers—push back the white locks from the lofty brow over which they are continually thrown by the violent movements of his head, whilst he is speaking or replying to attacks made upon him in the Senate. Webster is more beautiful and calmer in his whole demeanour. Nevertheless I see in Clay the patriotic hero who will conduct his native land and his countrymen onward along the path of freedom, while Webster, with all his beauty and his power as an orator, is to me merely like a great national watchman who keeps watch that the Constitution