It wasn’t only in the great sweep of the folds of his clothing
captured by sculptor Gaetano Trentanove, but the details of the craggy face that I’ve focused
on in this closeup: the penetrating eyes and fierce demeanor that froze
listeners in their place even before he uttered a single word.
One of the bronze relief panels on the granite
pedestal shows the audience in the speech for which he is best known, the 1830 “Reply
to Hayne” that included these words once memorized by countless American schoolchildren:
“Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”
Despite his faults (a fondness for liquor, a too-close
financial attachment to the Second Bank of the United States), Webster was a
more towering figure in the life of the nation than even many Presidents. In a way, I wish some author would write an extended essay/short
biography titled, Why Webster Still Matters.
If pressed, I would start by saying his career offers
an example to Americans of our time of how what Senators say and do can make a
difference in the life of the nation—if only Senator do not engage in gridlock and
senseless posturing.
But equally important, I would point to his remarkable
recognition in a June 1, 1837 address in Madison, Ind., of where damage
to our country might come from:
“I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign
foe…. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter.
From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from
their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger.
I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants,
and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be
made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own
undoing.”
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