enjoyment from their possession."

Amid all the applause and glory, there was one letter of congratulation and
acknowledgment which must have given Mr. Webster more pleasure than
anything else, It came from John Adams, who never did anything by halves.
Whether he praised or condemned, he did it heartily and ardently, and such
an oration on New England went straight to the heart of the eager,
warm-blooded old patriot. His commendation, too, was worth having, for he
spoke as one having authority. John Adams had been one of the eloquent men
and the most forcible debater of the first Congress. He had listened to the
great orators of other lands. He had heard Pitt and Fox, Burke and
Sheridan, and had been present at the trial of Warren Hastings. His
unstinted praise meant and still means a great deal, and it concludes with
one of the finest and most graceful of compliments. The oration, he says,

"is the effort of a great mind, richly stored with every species of
information. If there be an American who can read it without tears,
I am not that American. It enters more perfectly into the genuine
spirit of New England than any production I ever read. The
observations on the Greeks and Romans; on colonization in general;
on the West India islands; on the past, present, and future of
America, and on the slave-trade, are sagacious, profound, and
affecting in a high degree."

"Mr. Burke is no longer entitled to the praise--the most consummate
orator of modern times."

"What can I say of what regards myself? To my humble name,
_Exegisti monumentum aere perennius_."