When he wrote the above, he said to a friend: "If I get well and write
a book on Christianity, about which we have talked, we can attend more
fully to this matter; but if I should be taken away suddenly, I do not
wish to leave any duty of this kind unperformed. I want to leave
somewhere a declaration of my belief in Christianity."
It was not Mr. Webster's custom to make a parade of his religious
beliefs; he was simple, sincere, and unaffected in his religious life.
That he was a lover and student of our English Bible, no one familiar
with his thought and style needs to be told. Mr. Choate, in speaking of
Webster's models in the matter of style, mentions Cicero, Virgil, our
English Bible, Shakespeare, Addison, and Burke.
For the latest estimates of Webster's work the student should consult
the following:
The Proceedings of the Webster Centennial, Dartmouth College (1902).
Address of Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge at the unveiling of the Webster
Memorial in Washington, in the volume _The Fighting Frigate_ and other
essays.
John B. McMaster's Life of Daniel Webster.