Part 1 (1/2)

The Works of Daniel Webster

by Daniel Webster

VOLUME I

CHAPTER I

Former Editions of the Works of Mr Webster, and Plan of this Edition--Parentage and Birth--First Settlements in the Interior of New Hampshi+re--Establishment of his Father at Salisbury--Scanty Opportunities of Early Education--First Teachers, and recent Letter to Master Tappan--Placed at Exeter Acadee--Study of the Law at Salisbury--Residence at Fryeburg in Maine, and Occupations there--Continuance of the Study of the Law at Boston, in the Office of Hon Christopher Gore--Admission to the Bar of Suffolk, Massachusetts--Commencement of Practice at Boscawen, New Hampshi+re--Removal to Ports Practice

The first collection of Mr Webster's speeches in the Congress of the United States and on various public occasions was published in Boston, in one volume octavo, in 1830 This volume was more than once reprinted, and in 1835 a second volu the speeches made up to that time, and not included in the first collection Several impressions of these two volumes were called for by the public In 1843 a third volu a selection from the speeches of Mr Webster from the year 1835 till his entrance into the cabinet of General Harrison In the year 1848 appeared a fourth volu a portion of Mr Webster's official correspondence as Secretary of State

The great favor hich these voluhout the country, and the importance of the subjects discussed in the Senate of the United States after Mr Webster's return to that body in 1845, have led his friends to think that a valuable service would be rendered to the coether his speeches of a later date than those contained in the third volu since that time Few periods of our history will be entitled to be rereater moment, such as the adon controversy, the Mexican war, the acquisition of California and other Mexican provinces, and the exciting questions which have grown out of the sudden extension of the territory of the United States Rarely have public discussions been carried on with greater earnestness, with reater ability The speeches made by Mr Webster in the Senate, and on public occasions of various kinds, during the progress of these controversies, are more than sufficient to fill t volumes The opportunity of their collection has been taken by the enterprising publishers, in compliance with opinions often expressed by the most respectable individuals, and with aout a new edition of Mr Webster's speeches in uniform style Such is the object of the present publication The first two volureat variety of public occasions, co with his discourse at Ply volureater part of the speeches delivered in the Massachusetts Convention and in the two houses of Congress, beginning with the speech on the Bank of the United States in 1816 The sixth and last voluuments and addresses to the jury, the diplomatic papers, and letters addressed to various persons on important political questions

The collection does not es Such a series would have required a larger number of volueneral circulation of the work A few juvenile perforly been omitted, as not of sufficient importance or maturity to be included in the collection Of the earlier speeches in Congress, some were either not reported at all, or in ainjustice to the author No attempt has been ressional registers the short conversational speeches and remarks ress, in the progress of debate, and soreater influence on the result than the set speeches Of the addresses to public s it has been found i the work to an unreasonable size It is believed, however, that the contents of these volumes furnish a fair specimen of Mr Webster's opinions and sentiments on all the subjects treated, and of hiswhat should be omitted and what included has been left by Mr Webster to the friends having the charge of the publication, and his own opinion on details of this kind has rarely been taken

In addition to such introductory notices as were deemed expedient relative to the occasions and subjects of the various speeches, it has been thought advisable that the collection should be acco a condensed view of Mr Webster's public career, with a few observations by way of coht otherwise fitly be said in such an essay must, it is true, be excluded by that delicacy which qualifies the eulogy to be awarded even to theworth Much may be safely omitted, as too well known to need repetition in this co to a full survey of Mr Webster's career In preparing the following notice, free use has been raphical sketches already before the public Justice, however, requires that a specific acknowledgment should be made to an article in the American Quarterly Review for June, 1831, written, with equal accuracy and elegance, by Mr George Ticknor, and containing a discri estimate of the speeches ehly spirited and vigorous work entitled ”Reress,” by Mr Charles W March To this work the present sketch is largely indebted for the account of the parentage and early life of Mr Webster; as well as for a very graphic description of the debate on Foot's resolution

The family of Daniel Webster has been established in Ain, but passed soration Thomas Webster, the remotest ancestor who can be traced, was settled at Hampton, on the coast of New Ha at Plymouth, and six years from the arrival of Governor Winthrop in Massachusetts Bay The descent from Thomas Webster to Daniel can be traced in the church and town records of Haston), and Salisbury

These records and the rave-yards are the herald's office of the fathers of New England Noah Webster, the learned author of the Ae, was of a collateral branch of the family

Ebenezer Webster, the father of Daniel, is still recollected in Kingston and Salisbury His personal appearance was striking He was erect, of athletic stature, six feet high, broad and full in the chest Long service in the wars had given hied to that intrepid border race, which lined the whole frontier of the Anglo-American colonies, by turns far their lives in one long struggle with the hardshi+ps of an infant settlement, on the skirts of a primeval forest Ebenezer Webster enlisted early in life as a coers, which rendered such important services under Sir Jeffrey Amherst and Wolfe in the Seven Years' War He followed the foruished leader in the invasion of Canada, attracted the attention and gained the good-will of his superior officers by his brave and faithful conduct, and rose to the rank of a captain before the end of the war

For the first half of the last century the settleress into the interior Every war between France and Great Britain in Europe was the signal of an irruption of the Canadian French and their Indian allies into New England As late as 1755 they sacked villages on the Connecticut River, and John Stark, while hunting on Baker's River, three years before, was taken a prisoner and sold as a slave into Canada One can scarcely believe that it is not yet a hundred years since occurrences like these took place The cession of Canada to England by the treaty of 1763 entirely changed this state of things It opened the pathways of the forest and the gates of the Western hills The royal governor of New Harants of land in the central parts of the State Colonel Stevens of Kingston, with sohbors, rant of the town of Salisbury, which was at first called Stevenstown, frorantee This town is situated exactly at the point where the Merriewasset and Winnipiseogee Captain Webster was one of the settlers of the newly granted townshi+p, and received an allotment in its northerly portion More adventurous than others of the company, he cut his way deeper into the wilderness, and made the path he could not find At this tihbors on the northere at Montreal

The following allusion of Mr Webster to his birthplace will be read with interest It is froreat public assea, in the year 1840

”It did not happen tocabin; butcabin, raised amid the snowdrifts of New Hampshi+re, at a period so early that, when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada Its remains still exist I make to it an annual visit I carry my children to it to teach theone before them I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections, and the touching narratives and incidents, which le with all I know of this primitive family abode I weep to think that none of those who inhabited it are now a; and if ever I am ashamed of it, or if I ever fail in affectionate veneration for HIM who reared and defended it against savage violence and destruction, cherished all the doh the fire and blood of seven years' revolutionary war, shrunk froer, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his children to a condition better than his own, may my name and the name of my posterity be blotted for ever from the memory of mankind!”

Soon after his settle deceased, he ail Eastman, who became the mother of Ezekiel and Daniel Webster, the only sons of the second e Like the mothers of so many men of eminence, she was a woman of more than ordinary intellect, and possessed a force of character which was felt throughout the humble circle in which she moved She was proud of her sons and ambitious that they should excel

Her anticipations went beyond the narrow sphere in which their lot seemed to be cast, and the distinction attained by both, and especially by the younger, s and judicious guidance

About the tie, Captain Ebenezer Webster erected a fra a well near it and planted an el since disappeared, but the spot where it stood is well known, and is covered by a house since built The cellar of the log cabin is still visible, though partly filled with the accumulations of seventy years ”The well still remains,” says Mr March, ”ater as pure, as cool, and as liht, and will rees, to refresh hereafter the votaries of genius who e hither, to visit the cradle of one of her greatest sons The elorous leaf, and may have an existence beyond its perishable nature Like

'The witch-el,'

itafter leaf, and branch, and root have disappeared for ever”

The interval between the peace of 1763 and the breaking out of the war of the Revolution was one of excitereat political questions of the day were not only discussed in the towns and cities, but in the villages and hamlets

Captain Webster took a deep interest in those discussions Like so many of the officers and soldiers of the forle He commanded a company, chiefly composed of his onspeople, friends, and kindred, who followed hireater portion of the war He was at the battle of White Plains, and was at West Point when the treason of Arnold was discovered He acted as a Major under Stark at Bennington, and contributed his share to the success of that eventful day

In the last year of the Revolutionary war, on the 18th of January, 1782, Daniel Webster was born, in the home which his father had established on the outskirts of civilization If the character and situation of the place, and the circumstances under which he passed the first years of his life, ht seem adverse to the early cultivation of his extraordinary talent, it still cannot be doubted that they possessed influences favorable to elevation and strength of character The hardshi+ps of an infant settle series of Indian wars, and of two hty national contests, in which an honored parent had borne his part, the anecdotes of Fort Williaton, of West Point, of Wolfe and Stark and Washi+ngton, the great Iliad and Odyssey of American Independence,--this was the fireside entertaine hoy outline of the hills broken and relieved only by the funereal he” pine, the lowlands traversed in every direction by unbridged streams, the tall, charred trunks in the cornfields, that told how stern had been the struggle with the boundless woods, and, at the close of the year, the dish latitudes in a thinly settled region, when

”the snows descend; and, foul and fierce, All winter drives along the darkened air”;--

these are circuhtful child, and induce an early maturity of character