l men who knew
them both, and the best opinion is that Ezekiel was the stronger of the
two, mentally and morally.

Daniel was not a student, while Ezekiel was; and as a counselor Ezekiel
was the safer man. Up to the very week of Ezekiel's death Daniel advised
with him on all his important affairs. When Ezekiel fell dead in the
courtroom at Concord and the news was carried to his brother, it was a
blow that affected him more than the loss of wife or child. His friend and
counselor, the one man in life upon whom he leaned, was gone, and over his
own great, craglike face came that look of sorrow which death only
removed. But care and grief became this giant, as they do all who are
great enough to bear them.

It was two years after his brother's death that he made the speech which
is his masterpiece. And while the applause was ringing in his ears he
turned to Judge Story and said, "Oh, if Zeke were only here!" Who is
there who can not sympathize with that groan? We work for others; and to
win the applause of senates or nations, and not be able to know that Some
One is glad, takes all the sweetness out of victory.

"When I sing well, I want you to meet me in the wings of the stage, and
taking me in your aims, kiss my cheek, and whisper it was all right." When
Patti wrote this to her lover she voiced the universal need of a some one
who understands, to share the triumph of good work well done. The
nostalgia of life never seems so bitter as after moments of success; then
comes creeping in the thought that he who would have gloried in
this--knowing all the years of struggle and deprivations that made it
possible--is sleeping his long sleep.

In that speech of January Twenty-sixth, Eighteen Hundred Thirty, Webster
reached high-water mark. On that performance, more than any other, rests
his fame. He was forty-eight years old then. All the years of his career
he had been getting ready for that address. It was on the one theme that
he loved; on the theme he had studied most; on the only theme upon which
he ever spoke well--the greatness, the grandeur and the possibilities of
America. He spoke for four hours, and in his works the speech occupies
seventy close pages. He was at the zenith of his physical and intellectual
power, and that is as good a place as any to stop and view the man.

On account of his proud carriage, and the fine poise of his massive head,
he gave the impression of being a very large man; but he was just five