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Show I TODAY IN HISTORY MONDAY, OCTOBER 24. 1010. Death of Daniel Webster. Daniel Webster, ono of thu greatest, lawyers and statesmen the world has ever seen, after an active political life covering a porlod of mora' than fifty years, died on October 2. IS5'. In the 70th year of his age- A I the time of hie death ho was secretary of state in the cabinet of Millard Fillmore. Being broken lu health tnrougli hard word during the summer of 1S5'J, Webster Web-ster retired, In September, lo MaiPhflcld, his beautiful estate, at which plnco .he always found so much rest and comfort from his arduous labors. Tho thought-probably thought-probably never occurred to him that ho had but a. fow weeks to live, but ho was only at Marshtlcld a few days when ho took to IiIe bed. Aa ho lay there, looking out on a small pond, he requested that a lantern be lighted and hoisted at night to the masthead mast-head of a little boat that rode hi the pond, and that tho flag be hoisted under It. This was done, and when free from pnln he lay, looking with great pleasure at them. "I want to kep my flag flying and my light burning until I die." he said. Ono of the last objects his eyes foil on were I his Hag. lighted by his masthead lantern. lan-tern. His last words wcro: "I still live." Webster still lives in the minds of the people as the nation's greatest orator, ora-tor, who first gave adequate expression to tho patriotic fervor, of his people- Ho lived In days of discord and growth, he felt the pulse of maturing life, and ho gave expression to the higher thoughts which tho rough old patriots who preceded pre-ceded him could not express!, but had toiight for. lie expounded the constitution constitu-tion as no other man could. Webster was a lawyer one of the groalost the world has evor scon and a statesman, but llrst of all he was a man of heart, who felt In his bosom the tcn-derest tcn-derest emotions, through tho gift of sympathy sym-pathy and golden speech. Ho could move men to tears at will, and so responsive w.'ih his own nature he sometimes wept with those whose sympathies he aroused. As a lawyer Webster was the stu-dcnL's stu-dcnL's hero. As a statesman ho belongs to the country's galaxy of groat men. As In orator he ranks with the Inspired sages of ancient Greece. As m man he was human and vibrant. As an American Ameri-can he was a noble lypo. At tho birthday celebration, the 77th, of AVebstcr. In Boston. .lammry -1, ISoO. seven years after his death, the orator of the day was Rufus Choato. It was one of his most brilliant efforts. "I have read that in somo hard battle, whon the tide was running against him, and his ranks were breaking, somo one In tho agony of a noed of generalship, general-ship, exrlaimcd. "O. for an hour of Dundee!' So say I. 'O, for one moro roll of that thunder Inimitable! Inimita-ble! One more peal of that clarion! One more grave and bold counsel of moderation! moder-ation! One more throb of American feeling! feel-ing! One morn farewell address! And then might he asf-ond unhindered to the bosom of his Father and his Cod." At the one hundredth anniversary of bis birthday at the Mair.hllold club, on January IS, iSS'J, tho orator was Robert G. Wlnthrop. Of the. groat expounder he used the following clouucnl language: "Ho was a man of his own type, as individual and uniquo. intellectually and physically, as the great Napoleon, or as our own Franklin, cast In a mold of which Ihoro has been no other impression impres-sion In our pnrt of the land, and of whom it might almost be said, as Byron said of Sheridan, 'that nature broke the. dio iu molding one such man." His name hay been written on tho mountains, where II belongs on I he grandest mountains of his native stlc. There It will endure, and find fit companionship with the Adamses and .TeffersoiiK and Madlsons. and wllb Waahlnclon. In the clear upper up-per sky. above them all. And until those mountains shall depart and those hills bo removed, his name will be accepted ac-cepted and recognized as the very synonym of tho most powerful American Ameri-can mind; as well as the most Impressive America) presence, of tho age in which ho lived and acled." On October 21, 1GS2, William Pcnn arrived ar-rived in America:, the 13rlc canal was opened between Htlca. and Koine in ISO!), and Spain ceded Florida to- the United Slates In 1S20. Today Is tho birthday of Sir .lames Mackintosh, the inlscellan- . eons writer (17fii); John Sarlain, the artist and engraver (IS0S): and John M. Daniel, tlio Virginia editor and diplomat diplo-mat .(lSJ.'i). Today is the death day of Hugh Capet, king of Franco (01(7): Jane Seymour, wife of Henry; VIII. (lf;7). Charles Manners, the English statesman (17S7). and "Joe Doe" and "Richard Roc." the fictitious "representatives" in English legal documents. |