Before a jury Webster fell behind Erskine as he did behind Choate, although neither of them ever produced anything at all comparable to the speech on the White murder; but in the Senate, and in the general field of oratory, he rises high above them both.

The man with whom Webster is oftenest compared, and the last to be mentioned, is of course Burke.

It may be conceded at once that in creative imagination, and in richness of imagery and language, Burke ranks above Webster.

But no one would ever have said of Webster as Goldsmith did of Burke:-- "Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining, And thought of convincing while they thought of dining." Webster never sinned by over refinement or over ingenuity, for both were utterly foreign to his nature.

Still less did he impair his power in the Senate as Burke did in the Commons by talking too often and too much.