Mr. Webster seemed rather feeble at that time, and called
upon his friend Mr. William Dehon to read for him the evidence
and extracts from reports with which he had to deal. His
tome was the tone of ordinary conversation, and his speech,
while it would not be called hesitating, was exceedingly
slow and deliberate. I have been told by persons who heard
him in the Supreme Court in his later years that the same
characteristic marked his arguments there, and that some of
his passages made very little impression upon the auditors,
although they seemed eloquent and powerful when they came
to be read afterward.
His is frequently spoken of as a nervous Saxon style. That
is a great mistake, except as to a few passages where he rose
to a white heat. If any person will open a volume of his
speeches at random, it will be found that the characteristic
of his sentences is a somewhat ponderous Latinity.
A considerable number of Democrats joined the Free Soil movement
in 1848. Conspicuous among them was Marcus Morton, who had
been Governor and one of our ablest Supreme Court judges,
and his son, afterward Chief Justice, then just rising into
distinction as a lawyer.
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