College. While still a young man, Daniel Webster leaped into fame by a
single argument before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and became
the competitor of jurists like Rufus Choate. His orations on "Bunker
Hill Monument," the "Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers," the "Death of
Adams and Jefferson," are among the really sublime passages in the
history of eloquence. In the Girard College case Webster established the
point that Christianity is a part of the common law of the land.
Criminal lawyers quote Webster's argument in the great Knapp murder
trial, that the voice of conscience is the voice of God, as the world's
best statement of the moral imperative, and the automatic judgment seat
God has set up in the city of man's soul.

Even from the physical view-point he deserved his epithet, "the godlike
Daniel." Not so tall as Calhoun or Clay, he was more solidly built than
either of the Southern orators. His head was so large and beautiful,
that Crawford, the sculptor, thought Webster his ideal model for a
statue of Jupiter. His skin was a deep bronze and copper hue, but when
excited his face became luminous, and translucent as a lamp of
alabaster. His opponents say that Webster had the finest vocal
instrument of his generation, and that he was a master of all possible
effects through speech. His voice was mellow and sweet, with an
extraordinary range, extending from the ringing clarion tenor note, to
the bass of a deep-toned organ. The historian tells us "Webster had the
faculty of magnifying a word into such prodigious volume that it was
dropped from his lips as a great boulder might drop into the sea, and it
jarred the Senate Chamber like a clap of thunder." The Kentucky lawyer,
Thomas Marshall, said when Webster came to his peroration in his reply
to Hayne, that he "listened as to one inspired." He finally thought he
saw a halo around the orator's head, like the one seen in the old
masters' depictions of saints.

Webster's opponent was John C. Calhoun, senator from South Carolina.
Calhoun was the first Southern statesman to mark out the lines of battle
and indicate the methods of attack and defense for the supporters of
slavery. Graduating with high honours at Yale, in the class of 1802,
Calhoun studied law for three years at Litchfield, Connecticut, and then
decided to enter politics. In the lecture halls and class rooms, he
stood at the very forefront, as orator and logician. One day, in Yale
College, Calhoun deliv