To be blinded by the splendor of his fame and the lustre of his achievements and prate about the sin of belittling a great man is the falsest philosophy and the meanest cant.

The only thing worth having, in history as in life, is truth; and we do wrong to our past, to ourselves, and to our posterity if we do not strive to render simple justice always.

We can forgive the errors and sorrow for the faults of our great ones gone; we cannot afford to hide or forget their shortcomings.
But after all has been said, the question of most interest is, what Mr.
Webster represented, what he effected, and what he means in our history.
The answer is simple.

He stands to-day as the preeminent champion and exponent of nationality.

He said once, "there are no Alleghanies in my politics," and he spoke the exact truth.