Statesmen . of those who knewhim best, Mr. George and Mr. Peter Har-vey, that all his great fo-rensic and oratorical effortswere the result of care-ful preparation. Websterhimself said of his reply toHayne, that as a matter offact that speech had beenlying in his mind and in thepigeon-holes of his desk formore than a year. It wasprepared for another oc-casion, but was not deliv-ered ; and Webster declared that if Mr. Haynehad intended to make a speech to fit that whichWebster had already, he could not have comenearer to it than he did. Once when asked ifcertain of his speeches were de
Statesmen . of those who knewhim best, Mr. George and Mr. Peter Har-vey, that all his great fo-rensic and oratorical effortswere the result of care-ful preparation. Websterhimself said of his reply toHayne, that as a matter offact that speech had beenlying in his mind and in thepigeon-holes of his desk formore than a year. It wasprepared for another oc-casion, but was not deliv-ered ; and Webster declared that if Mr. Haynehad intended to make a speech to fit that whichWebster had already, he could not have comenearer to it than he did. Once when asked ifcertain of his speeches were delivered at briefnotice, he opened his great eyes with an expres-sion of astonishment and said: Young man,there is no such thing as extemporaneous acqui-sition. Webster spoke extemporaneously con-stantly while he was in the Senate, and he in-tended to convey by this remark that knowledgecould not be acquired without study, and thatstudy was necessary to acquire the knowledgewhich informed all of his DANIEL WEBSTER 59 It has been said, too, that in oratory Websterwas a sculptor rather than a painter. Thisseems a too subtile definition. Certainly manyof his orations glow with light and color, andhis powers of description were often simply pic-torial. In his reply to Hayne he pictures thepatriots of Massachusetts and South Carolinamarching shoulder to shoulder as they wentthrough the Revolution, or standing hand inhand around the administration of Washington,and in the wonderful peroration of that great ad-dress, as he raised his eyes to the glass skylightof the Senate chamber and saw the colors of theRepublic waving from the flagstaff, he ex-claimed : Let their last feeble and lingeringglance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of therepublic, now known and honored throughoutthe earth, still full-high advanced, its arms andtrophies streaming in their original lustre, nota stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star ob-scured. This was full of color. Webster loved color a
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