"  The  court-room  during  these  two  or  three  minutes  pre-
sented an  extraordinary  spectacle.  Chief  Justice  Marshall,
with  his  tall  and  gaunt  figure  bent  over  as  if  to  catch  the
slightest  whisper,  the  deep  furrows  of  his  cheek  expanded
with  emotion,  and  eyes  suffused  with  tears ;  Mr.  Justice  Wash-
ington at  his  side,  —  with  his  small  and  emaciated  frame,  and
countenance  more  like  marble  than  I  ever  saw  on  any  other
human  being,  —  leaning  forward  with  an  eager,  troubled  look;
and  the  remainder  of  the  Court,  at  the  two  extremities,  press-
ing, as  it  were,  toward  a  single  point,  while  the  audience  below
were  wrapping  themselves  round  in  closer  folds  beneatli  the
bench  to  catch  each  look,  and  every  movement  of  the  speak-
er's face.  If  a  painter  could  give  us  the  scene  on  canvas, —
those  forms  and  countenances,  and  Daniel  Webster  as  he  then
stood  in  the  midst,  it  would  be  one  of  the  most  touching  pic-
tures in  the  history  of  eloquence.  One  thing  it  taught  me,
that  the  imthetic  depends  not  merely  on  the  words  uttered,  but
still  more  on  the  estimate  we  put  upon  him  who  utters  them.
There  was  not  one  among  the  strong-minded  men  of  that  as-
sembly who  could  think  it  unmanly  to  weep,  when  he  saw
standing  before  him  the  man  who  had  made  such  an  argument,
melted  into  the  tenderness  of  a  child.
