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THE WORKS OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
VOLUME I.
EIGHTH EDITION
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.
1854.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by GEORGE W.
GORDON AND JAMES W. PAIGE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED BY METCALF AND COMPANY,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
PRINTED AT HOUGHTON AND HAYWOOD
[Illustration: _Daniel Webster_]
DEDICATION
OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
TO MY NIECES,
MRS. ALICE BRIDGE WHIPPLE,
AND
MRS. MARY ANN SANBORN:
Many of the Speeches contained in this volume were delivered and printed
in the lifetime of your father whose fraternal affection led him to
speak of them with approbation.
His death, which happened when he had only just past the middle period
of life, left you without a father, and me without a brother.
I dedicate this volume to you, not only for the love I have for
yourselves, but also as a tribute of affection to his memory, and from a
desire that the name of my brother,
EZEKIEL WEBSTER,
may be associated with mine, so long as any thing written or spoken by
me shall be regarded or read.
DANIEL WEBSTER.
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
PAGE
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR.
CHAPTER I. xiii
Former Editions of the Works of Mr. Webster, and Plan of
this Edition.--Parentage and Birth.--First Settlements
in the Interior of New Hampshire.--Establishment of his
Father at Salisbury.--Scanty Opportunities of Early
Education.--First Teachers, and recent Letter to Master
Tappan.--Placed at Exeter Academy.--Anecdotes while
there.--Dartmouth College.--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 Hampshire.--Removal to Portsmouth.--Contemporaries
in the Profession.--Increasing Practice.
CHAPTER II. xxxiii
Entrance on Public Life.--State of Parties in
1812.--Election to Congress.--Extra Session of
1813.--Foreign Relations of the Country.--Resolutions
relative to the Berlin and Milan Decrees.--Naval
Defence.--Reelected to Congress in 1814.--Peace with
England.--Projects for a National Bank.--Mr. Webster's
Course on that Question.--Battle of New Orleans.--New
Questions arising on the Return of Peace.--Course of
Prominent Men of Different Parties.--Mr. Webster's
Opinions on the Constitutionality of the Tariff
Policy.--The Resolution to restore Specie Payments
moved by Mr. Webster.--Removal to Boston.
CHAPTER III. xlviii
Professional Character particularly in Reference to
Constitutional Law.--The Dartmouth College Case argued
at Washington in 1818.--Mr. Ticknor's Description of
that Argument.--The Case of Gibbons and Ogden in
1824.--Mr. Justice Wayne's Allusion to that Case in
1847.--The Case of Ogden and Saunders in 1827.--The
Case of the Proprietors of the Charles River
Bridge.--The Alabama Bank Case.--The Case relative to
the Boundary between Massachusetts and Rhode
Island.--The Girard Will Case.--The Case of the
Constitution of Rhode Island.--General Remarks on Mr.
Webster's Practice in the Supreme Court of the United
States.--Practice in the State Courts.--The Case of
Goodridge,--and the Case of Knapp.
CHAPTER IV. lx
The Convention to revise the Constitution of
Massachusetts.--John Adams a Delegate.--Mr. Webster's
Share in its Proceedings.--Speeches on Oaths of Office,
Basis of Senatorial Representation, and Independence of
the Judiciary.--Centennial Anniversary at Plymouth on
the 22d of December, 1820.--Discourse delivered by Mr.
Webster.--Bunker Hill Monument, and Address by Mr.
Webster on the Laying of the Corner-Stone, 17th of
June, 1825.--Discourse on the Completion of the
Monument, 17th of June, 1843.--Simultaneous Decease of
Adams and Jefferson on the 4th of July, 1826.--Eulogy
by Mr. Webster in Faneuil Hall.--Address at the Laying
of the Corner-Stone of the New Wing of the
Capitol.--Remarks on the Patriotic Discourses of Mr.
Webster, and on the Character of his Eloquence in
Efforts of this Class.
CHAPTER V. lxxii
Election to Congress from Boston.--State of
Parties.--Meeting of the Eighteenth Congress.--Mr.
Webster's Resolution and Speech in favor of the
Greeks.--Argument in the Supreme Court in the Case of
Gibbons and Ogden.--Circumstances under which it was
made.--Speech on the Tariff Law of 1824.--A complete
Revision of the Law for the Punishment of Crimes
against the United States reported by Mr. Webster, and
enacted.--The Election of Mr. Adams as President of the
United States.--Meeting of the Nineteenth Congress, and
State of Parties.--Congress of Panama, and Mr.
Webster's Speech on that Subject.--Election as a
Senator of the United States.--Revision of the Tariff
Law by the Twentieth Congress.--Embarrassments of the
Question.--Mr. Webster's Course and Speech on this
Subject.
CHAPTER VI. lxxxvii
Election of General Jackson.--Debate on Foot's
Resolution.--Subject of the Resolution, and Objects
of its Mover.--Mr. Hayne's First Speech.--Mr.
Webster's original Participation in the Debate
unpremeditated.--His First Speech.--Reply of Mr. Hayne
with increased Asperity.--Mr. Webster's Great
Speech.--Its Threefold Object.--Description of the
Manner of Mr. Webster in the Delivery of this
Speech, from Mr. March's "Reminiscences of
Congress."--Reception of his Speech throughout the
Country.--The Dinner at New York.--Chancellor
Kent's Remarks.--Final Disposal of Foot's
Resolution.--Report of Mr. Webster's Speech.--Mr.
Healey's Painting.
CHAPTER VII. ci
General Character of President Jackson's
Administrations.--Speedy Discord among the Parties
which had united for his Elevation.--Mr. Webster's
Relations to the Administration.--Veto of the
Bank.--Rise and Progress of Nullification in South
Carolina.--The Force Bill, and the Reliance of
General Jackson's Administration on Mr. Webster's
Aid.--His Speech in Defence of the Bill, and in
Opposition to Mr. Calhoun's Resolutions.--Mr.
Madison's Letter on Secession.--The Removal of the
Deposits.--Motives for that Measure.--The
Resolution of the Senate disapproving it.--The
President's Protest.--Mr. Webster's Speech on the
Subject of the Protest.--Opinions of Chancellor Kent
and Mr. Tazewell.--The Expunging Resolution.--Mr.
Webster's Protest against it.--Mr. Van Buren's
Election.--The Financial Crisis and the Extra
Session of Congress.--The Government Plan of Finance
supported by Mr. Calhoun and opposed by Mr.
Webster.--Personalities.--Mr. Webster's Visit to
Europe and distinguished Reception.--The
Presidential Canvass of 1840.--Election of General
Harrison.
CHAPTER VIII. cxix
Critical State of Foreign Affairs on the Accession of
General Harrison.--Mr. Webster appointed to the State
Department.--Death of General Harrison.--Embarrassed
Relations with England.--Formation of Sir Robert
Peel's Ministry, and Appointment of Lord Ashburton as
Special Minister to the United States.--Course
pursued by Mr. Webster in the Negotiations.--The
Northeastern Boundary.--Peculiar Difficulties in
its Settlement happily overcome.--Other Subjects of
Negotiation.--Extradition of Fugitives from
Justice.--Suppression of the Slave-Trade on the
Coast of Africa.--History of that Question.--Affair
of the Caroline.--Impressment.--Other Subjects
connected with the Foreign Relations of the
Government.--Intercourse with China.--Independence
of the Sandwich Islands.--Correspondence with
Mexico.--Sound Duties and the Zoll-Verein.--Importance
of Mr. Webster's Services as Secretary of State.
CHAPTER IX. cxliii
Mr. Webster resigns his Place in Mr. Tyler's
Cabinet.--Attempts to draw public Attention to the
projected Annexation of Texas.--Supports Mr. Clay's
Nomination for the Presidency.--Causes of the Failure
of that Nomination.--Mr. Webster returns to the Senate
of the United States.--Admission of Texas to the
Union.--The War with Mexico.--Mr. Webster's Course in
Reference to the War.--Death of Major Webster in
Mexico.--Mr. Webster's unfavorable Opinion of the
Mexican Government.--Settlement of the Oregon
Controversy.--Mr. Webster's Agency in effecting the
Adjustment.--Revival of the Sub-Treasury System and
Repeal of the Tariff Law of 1842.--Southern
Tour.--Success of the Mexican War and Acquisition of
the Mexican Provinces.--Efforts in Congress to organize
a Territorial Government for these Provinces.--Great
Exertions of Mr. Webster on the last Night of the
Session.--Nomination of General Taylor, and Course of
Mr. Webster in Reference to it.--A Constitution of
State Government adopted by California prohibiting
Slavery.--Increase of Antislavery Agitation.--Alarming
State of Affairs.--Mr. Webster's Speech for the
Union.--Circumstances under which it was made, and
Motives by which he was influenced.--General Taylor's
Death, and the Accession of Mr. Fillmore to the
Presidency.--Mr. Webster called to the Department of
State.
SPEECHES DELIVERED ON VARIOUS PUBLIC OCCASIONS.
First Settlement of New England 1
The Bunker Hill Monument 55
The Completion of the Bunker Hill Monument 79
Adams and Jefferson 109
The Election of 1825 151
Dinner at Faneuil Hall 161
The Boston Mechanics' Institution 175
Public Dinner at New York 191
The Character of Washington. 217
National Republican Convention at Worcester 235
Reception at Buffalo 279
Reception at Pittsburg 285
Reception at Bangor 307
Presentation of a Vase 317
Reception at New York 337
Reception at Wheeling 381
Reception at Madison 395
Public Dinner in Faneuil Hall 411
Royal Agricultural Society 433
The Agriculture of England 441
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
BY EDWARD EVERETT.
[Illustration: _Birth Place of Daniel Webster, Salisbury NH_]
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 Hampshire.--Establishment of his Father at
Salisbury.--Scanty Opportunities of Early Education.--First
Teachers, and recent Letter to Master Tappan.--Placed at Exeter
Academy.--Anecdotes while there.--Dartmouth College.--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 Hampshire.--Removal to Portsmouth.--Contemporaries in the
Profession.--Increasing 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 volume was published, containing 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 volume was prepared, containing 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 volume of
diplomatic papers, containing a portion of Mr. Webster's official
correspondence as Secretary of State.
The great favor with which these volumes have been received throughout
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 community by bringing together his speeches of a later date than
those contained in the third volume of the former collection, and on
political subjects arising since that time. Few periods of our history
will be entitled to be remembered by events of greater moment, such as
the admission of Texas to the Union, the settlement of the Oregon
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 more
important consequences visibly at stake, or with greater 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 two new 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 a
manifest public demand, to bring out a new edition of Mr. Webster's
speeches in uniform style. Such is the object of the present
publication. The first two volumes contain the speeches delivered by him
on a great variety of public occasions, commencing with his discourse at
Plymouth in December, 1820. Three succeeding volumes embrace the greater
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 volume contains the legal
arguments and addresses to the jury, the diplomatic papers, and letters
addressed to various persons on important political questions.
The collection does not embrace the entire series of Mr. Webster's
writings. Such a series would have required a larger number of volumes
than was deemed advisable with reference to the general circulation of
the work. A few juvenile performances have accordingly 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 a manner too imperfect to be preserved without
doing injustice to the author. No attempt has been made to collect from
the contemporaneous newspapers or Congressional registers the short
conversational speeches and remarks made by Mr. Webster, as by other
prominent members of Congress, in the progress of debate, and sometimes
exercising greater influence on the result than the set speeches. Of the
addresses to public meetings it has been found impossible to embrace
more than a selection, without swelling 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 his manner of discussing them. The
responsibility of deciding what 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 accompanied with a
Biographical Memoir, presenting a condensed view of Mr. Webster's public
career, with a few observations by way of commentary on the principal
speeches. Many things which might 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 the most eminent living worth. Much may be
safely omitted, as too well known to need repetition in this community,
though otherwise pertaining to a full survey of Mr. Webster's career. In
preparing the following notice, free use has been made by the writer of
the biographical 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
discriminating estimate of the speeches embraced in the first
collection; and also to the highly spirited and vigorous work entitled
"Reminiscences of Congress," 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 America from a very
early period. It was of Scottish origin, but passed some time in England
before the final emigration. Thomas Webster, the remotest ancestor who
can be traced, was settled at Hampton, on the coast of New Hampshire, as
early as 1636, sixteen years after the landing 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 Hampton, Kingston (now East Kingston), and Salisbury.
These records and the mouldering headstones of village grave-yards are
the herald's office of the fathers of New England. Noah Webster, the
learned author of the American Dictionary of the English Language, 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 him a military air and carriage. He
belonged to that intrepid border race, which lined the whole frontier of
the Anglo-American colonies, by turns farmers, huntsmen, and soldiers,
and passing their lives in one long struggle with the hardships of an
infant settlement, on the skirts of a primeval forest. Ebenezer Webster
enlisted early in life as a common soldier, in one of those formidable
companies of rangers, which rendered such important services under Sir
Jeffrey Amherst and Wolfe in the Seven Years' War. He followed the
former distinguished 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 settlements of New Hampshire
had made but little progress 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 Hampshire, Benning Wentworth,
began to make grants of land in the central parts of the State. Colonel
Stevens of Kingston, with some of his neighbors, mostly retired officers
and soldiers, obtained a grant of the town of Salisbury, which was at
first called Stevenstown, from the principal grantee. This town is
situated exactly at the point where the Merrimack River is formed by the
confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipiseogee. Captain Webster was
one of the settlers of the newly granted township, 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 time his nearest civilized neighbors on the
northwest were at Montreal.
The following allusion of Mr. Webster to his birthplace will be read
with interest. It is from a speech delivered before a great public
assembly at Saratoga, in the year 1840.
"It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin; but my elder
brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin, raised amid the
snowdrifts of New Hampshire, 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 them the hardships endured by the generations which have
gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the
kindred ties, the early affections, and the touching narratives and
incidents, which mingle with all I know of this primitive family
abode. I weep to think that none of those who inhabited it are now
among the living; 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 domestic
virtues beneath its roof, and, through the fire and blood of seven
years' revolutionary war, shrunk from no danger, 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 settlement in Salisbury, the first wife of Ebenezer
Webster having deceased, he married Abigail Eastman, who became the
mother of Ezekiel and Daniel Webster, the only sons of the second
marriage. 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, may well be traced in part to her early promptings
and judicious guidance.
About the time of his second marriage, Captain Ebenezer Webster erected
a frame house hard by the log cabin. He dug a well near it and planted
an elm sapling. In this house Daniel Webster was born. It has long 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, "with water as pure, as cool, and as
limpid as when first brought to light, and will remain in all
probability for ages, to refresh hereafter the votaries of genius who
make their pilgrimage hither, to visit the cradle of one of her greatest
sons. The elm that shaded the boy still flourishes in vigorous leaf, and
may have an existence beyond its perishable nature. Like
'The witch-elm that guards St. Fillan's spring,'
it may live in story long after 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 excitement and anxiety throughout the
Colonies. The great 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 former war, he obeyed the first call
to arms in the new struggle. He commanded a company, chiefly composed of
his own townspeople, friends, and kindred, who followed him through the
greater 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, might 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
hardships of an infant settlement and border life, the traditions of
a long series of Indian wars, and of two mighty national contests, in
which an honored parent had borne his part, the anecdotes of Fort
William Henry, of Quebec, of Bennington, of West Point, of Wolfe and
Stark and Washington, the great Iliad and Odyssey of American
Independence,--this was the fireside entertainment of the long winter
evenings of the secluded village home. Abroad, the uninviting
landscape, the harsh and craggy outline of the hills broken and relieved
only by the funereal hemlock and the "cloud seeking" 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
dismal scene which presents itself in high latitudes in a thinly
settled region, when
"the snows descend; and, foul and fierce,
All winter drives along the darkened air";--
these are circumstances to leave an abiding impression on the mind of a
thoughtful child, and induce an early maturity of character.
Mr. March has described an incident of Mr. Webster's earliest youth in a
manner so graphical, that we are tempted to repeat it in his own
words:--
"In Mr. Webster's earliest youth an occurrence of such a nature took
place, which affected him deeply at the time, and has dwelt in his
memory ever since. There was a sudden and extraordinary rise in the
Merrimack River, in a spring thaw. A deluge of rain for two whole
days poured down upon the houses. A mass of mingled water and snow
rushed madly from the hills, inundating the fields far and wide. The
highways were broken up, and rendered undistinguishable. There was
no way for neighbors to interchange visits of condolence or
necessity, save by boats, which came up to the very door-steps of
the houses.
"Many things of value were swept away, even things of bulk. A large
barn, full fifty feet by twenty, crowded with hay and grain, sheep,
chickens, and turkeys, sailed majestically down the river, before
the eyes of the astonished inhabitants; who, no little frightened,
got ready to fly to the mountains, or construct another ark.
"The roar of waters, as they rushed over precipices, casting the
foam and spray far above, the crashing of the forest-trees as the
storm broke through them, the immense sea everywhere in range of the
eye, the sublimity, even danger, of the scene, made an indelible
impression upon the mind of the youthful observer.
"Occurrences and scenes like these excite the imaginative faculty,
furnish material for proper thought, call into existence new
emotions, give decision to character, and a purpose to action."--pp.
7, 8.
It may well be supposed that Mr. Webster's early opportunities for
education were very scanty. It is indeed correctly remarked by Mr.
Ticknor, in reference to this point, that "in New England, ever since
the first free school was established amidst the woods that covered the
peninsula of Boston in 1636, the schoolmaster has been found on the
border line between savage and civilized life, often indeed with an axe
to open his own path, but always looked up to with respect, and always
carrying with him a valuable and preponderating influence." Still,
however, compared with any thing that would be called a good school in
this region and at the present time, the schools which existed on the
frontier sixty years ago were sadly defective. Many of our district
schools even now are below their reputation. The Swedish Chancellor's
exclamation of wonder at the little wisdom with which the world is
governed, might well be repeated at the little learning and skill with
which the scholastic world in too many parts of our country is still
taught. In Mr. Webster's boyhood it was much worse. Something that was
called a school was kept for two or three months in the winter,
frequently by an itinerant, too often a pretender, claiming only to
teach a little reading, writing, and ciphering, and wholly incompetent
to give any valuable assistance to a clever youth in learning either.
Such as the village school was, Mr. Webster enjoyed its advantages, if
they could be called by that name. It was, however, of a migratory
character. When it was near his father's residence it was easy to
attend; but it was sometimes in a distant part of the town, and
sometimes in another town. While he was quite young, he was daily sent
two miles and a half or three miles to school in mid-winter and on
foot. If the school-house lay in the same direction with the miller or
the blacksmith, an occasional ride might be hoped for. If the school was
removed to a still greater distance, he was boarded at a neighbor's.
Poor as these opportunities of education were, they were bestowed on Mr.
Webster more liberally than on his brothers. He showed a greater
eagerness for learning; and he was thought of too frail a constitution
for any robust pursuit. An older half-brother good-humoredly said, that
"Dan was sent to school that he might get to know as much as the other
boys." It is probable that the best part of his education was derived
from the judicious and experienced father, and the strong-minded,
affectionate, and ambitious mother.
Mr. Webster's first master was Thomas Chase. He could read tolerably
well, and wrote a fair hand; but spelling was not his _forte_. His
second master was James Tappan, now living at an advanced age in
Gloucester, Massachusetts. His qualifications as a teacher far exceeded
those of Master Chase. The worthy veteran, now dignified with the title
of Colonel, feels a pride, it may well be supposed, in the fame of his
quondam pupil. He lately addressed a letter to him, recounting some of
the incidents of his own life since he taught school at Salisbury. This
unexpected communication from his aged teacher drew from Mr. Webster the
following answer, in which a handsome gratuity was inclosed, more,
probably, than the old gentleman ever received for a winter's teaching
at "New Salisbury."[1]
"_Washington, February 26, 1851._
"MASTER TAPPAN,--I thank you for your letter, and am rejoiced to
know that you are among the living. I remember you perfectly well as
a teacher of my infant years. I suppose my mother must have taught
me to read very early, as I have never been able to recollect the
time when I could not read the Bible. I think Master Chase was my
earliest schoolmaster, probably when I was three or four years old.
Then came Master Tappan. You boarded at our house, and sometimes, I
think, in the family of Mr. Benjamin Sanborn, our neighbor, the lame
man. Most of those whom you knew in 'New Salisbury' have gone to
their graves. Mr. John Sanborn, the son of Benjamin, is yet living,
and is about your age. Mr. John Colby, who married my oldest
sister, Susannah, is also living. On the 'North Road' is Mr.
Benjamin Hunton, and on the 'South Road' is Mr. Benjamin Pettengil.
I think of none else among the living whom you would probably
remember.
"You have indeed lived a checkered life. I hope you have been able
to bear prosperity with meekness, and adversity with patience. These
things are all ordered for us far better than we could order them
for ourselves. We may pray for our daily bread; we may pray for the
forgiveness of sins; we may pray to be kept from temptation, and
that the kingdom of God may come, in us, and in all men, and his
will everywhere be done. Beyond this, we hardly know for what good
to supplicate the Divine Mercy. Our Heavenly Father knoweth what we
have need of better than we know ourselves, and we are sure that his
eye and his loving-kindness are upon us and around us every moment.
"I thank you again my good old schoolmaster, for your kind letter,
which has awakened many sleeping recollections; and, with all good
wishes, I remain your friend and pupil,
"DANIEL WEBSTER.
To "MR. JAMES TAPPAN."
He derived, also, no small benefit from the little social library,
which, chiefly by the exertions of Mr. Thompson (the intelligent lawyer
of the place), the clergyman, and Mr. Webster's father, had been founded
in Salisbury. The attention of the people of New Hampshire had been
called to this mode of promoting general and popular education by Dr.
Belknap. In the patriotic address to the people of New Hampshire, at the
close of his excellent History, he says:--
"This (the establishment of social libraries) is the easiest, the
cheapest, and the most effectual mode of diffusing knowledge among
the people. For the sum of six or eight dollars at once, and a small
annual payment besides, a man may be supplied with the means of
literary improvement during his life, and his children may inherit
the blessing."[2]
From the village library at Salisbury, founded on recommendations like
these, Mr. Webster was able to obtain a moderate supply of good reading.
It is quite worth noticing, that his attention, like that of Franklin,
was in early boyhood attracted to the Spectator. Franklin, as is well
known, studiously formed his style on that of Addison;--and a
considerable resemblance may be traced between them. There is no such
resemblance between Mr. Webster's style and that of Addison, unless it
be the negative merit of freedom from balanced sentences, hard words,
and inversions. It may, no doubt, have been partly owing to his early
familiarity with the Spectator, that he escaped in youth from the
turgidity and pomp of the Johnsonian school, and grew up to the mastery
of that direct and forcible, but not harsh and affected sententiousness,
that masculine simplicity, with which his speeches and writings are so
strongly marked.
The year before Mr. Webster was born was rendered memorable in New
Hampshire by the foundation of the Academy at Exeter, through the
munificence of the Honorable John Phillips. His original endowment is
estimated by Dr. Belknap at nearly ten thousand pounds, which, in the
comparative scarcity of money in 1781, cannot be considered as less than
three times that amount at the present day. Few events are more likely
to be regarded as eras in the history of that State. In the year 1788,
Dr. Benjamin Abbot, soon afterwards its principal, became connected with
the Academy as an instructor, and from that time it assumed the rank
which it still maintains among the schools of the country. To this
Academy Mr. Webster was taken by his father in May, 1796. He enjoyed the
advantage of only a few months' instruction in this excellent school;
but, short as the period was, his mind appears to have received an
impulse of a most genial and quickening character. Nothing could be more
graceful or honorable to both parties than the tribute paid by Mr.
Webster to his ancient instructor, at the festival at Exeter, in 1838,
in honor of Dr. Abbot's jubilee. While at the Academy, his studies were
aided and his efforts encouraged by a pupil younger than himself, but
who, having enjoyed better advantages of education in boyhood, was now
in the senior class at Exeter, the early celebrated and lamented Joseph
Stevens Buckminster. The following anecdote from Mr. March's work will
not be thought out of place in this connection:--
"It may appear somewhat singular that the greatest orator of modern
times should have evinced in his boyhood the strongest antipathy to
public declamation. This fact, however, is established by his own
words, which have recently appeared in print. 'I believe,' says Mr.
Webster, 'I made tolerable progress in most branches which I
attended to while in this school; but there was one thing I could
not do. I could not make a declamation. I could not speak before the
school. The kind and excellent Buckminster sought especially to
persuade me to perform the exercise of declamation, like other boys,
but I could not do it. Many a piece did I commit to memory, and
recite and rehearse in my own room, over and over again; yet when
the day came, when the school collected to hear declamations, when
my name was called, and I saw all eyes turned to my seat, I could
not raise myself from it. Sometimes the instructors frowned,
sometimes they smiled. Mr. Buckminster always pressed and entreated,
most winningly, that I would venture. But I never could command
sufficient resolution.' Such diffidence of its own powers may be
natural to genius, nervously fearful of being unable to reach that
ideal which it proposes as the only full consummation of its wishes.
It is fortunate, however, for the age, fortunate for all ages, that
Mr. Webster by determined will and frequent trial overcame this
moral incapacity, as his great prototype, the Grecian orator,
subdued his physical defect."--pp. 12, 13.
The effect produced, even at that early period of Mr. Webster's life, on
the mind of a close observer of his mental powers, is strikingly
illustrated by the following anecdote. Mr. Nicholas Emery, afterwards a
distinguished lawyer and judge, and now living in Portland, was
temporarily employed, at that time, as an usher in the Academy. On
entering the Academy, Mr. Webster was placed in the lowest class, which
consisted of half a dozen boys, of no remarkable brightness of
intellect. Mr. Emery was the instructor of this class, among others. At
the end of a month, after morning recitations, "Webster," said Mr.
Emery, "you will pass into the other room and join a higher class"; and
added, "Boys, you will take your final leave of Webster, you will never
see him again."
After a few months well spent at Exeter, Mr. Webster returned home, and
in February, 1797, was placed by his father under the Rev. Samuel Wood,
the minister of the neighboring town of Boscawen. He lived in Mr. Wood's
family, and for board and instruction the entire charge was one dollar
per week.
On their way to Mr. Wood's, Mr. Webster's father first opened to his
son, now fifteen years old, the design of sending him to college, the
thought of which had never before entered his mind. The advantages of a
college education were a privilege to which he had never aspired in
his most ambitious dreams. "I remember," says Mr. Webster, in an
autobiographical memorandum of his boyhood, "the very hill which we
were ascending, through deep snows, in a New England sleigh, when my
father made known this purpose to me. I could not speak. How could he,
I thought, with so large a family and in such narrow circumstances,
think of incurring so great an expense for me. A warm glow ran all
over me, and I laid my head on my father's shoulder and wept."
In truth, a college education was a far different affair fifty years ago
from what it has since become, by the multiplication of collegiate
institutions, and the establishment of public funds in aid of those who
need assistance. It constituted a person at once a member of an
intellectual aristocracy. In many cases it really conferred
qualifications, and in all was supposed to do so, without which
professional and public life could not be entered upon with any hope of
success. In New England, at that time, it was not a common occurrence
that any one attained a respectable position in either of the
professions without this advantage. In selecting the member of the
family who should enjoy this privilege, the choice not unfrequently fell
upon the son whose slender frame and early indications of disease
unfitted him for the laborious life of our New England yeomanry.
From February till August, 1797, Mr. Webster remained under the
instruction of Mr. Wood, at Boscawen, and completed his preparation for
college. It is hardly necessary to say, that the preparation was
imperfect. There is probably no period in the history of the country at
which the standard of classical literature stood lower than it did at
the close of the last century. The knowledge of Greek and Latin brought
by our forefathers from England had almost run out in the lapse of
nearly two centuries, and the signal revival which has taken place
within the last thirty years had not yet begun. Still, however, when we
hear of a youth of fifteen preparing himself for college by a year's
study of Greek and Latin, we must recollect that the attainments which
may be made in that time by a young man of distinguished talent, at the
period of life when the faculties develop themselves with the greatest
energy, studying night and day, summer and winter, under the master
influence of hope, ambition, and necessity, are not to be measured by
the tardy progress of the thoughtless or languid children of prosperity,
sent to school from the time they are able to go alone, and carried
along by routine and discipline from year to year, in the majority of
cases without strong personal motives to diligence. Besides this, it is
to be considered that the studies which occupy this usually prolonged
novitiate are those which are required for the acquisition of
grammatical and metrical niceties, the elegancies and the luxuries of
scholarship. Short as was his period of preparation, it enabled Mr.
Webster to lay the foundation of a knowledge of the classical writers,
especially the Latin, which was greatly increased in college, and which
has been kept up by constant recurrence to the great models of
antiquity, during the busiest periods of active life. The happiness of
Mr. Webster's occasional citations from the Latin classics is a striking
feature of his oratory.
Mr. Webster entered college in 1797, and passed the four academic years
in assiduous study. He was not only distinguished for his attention to
the prescribed studies, but devoted himself to general reading,
especially to English history and literature. He took part in the
publication of a little weekly newspaper, furnishing selections from
books and magazines, with an occasional article from his own pen. He
delivered addresses, also, before the college societies, some of which
were published. The winter vacations brought no relaxation. Like those
of so many of the meritorious students at our places of education, they
were employed in teaching school, for the purpose of eking out his own
frugal means and aiding his brother to prepare himself for college. The
attachment between the two brothers was of the most affectionate kind,
and it was by the persuasion of Daniel that the father had been induced
to extend to Ezekiel also the benefits of a college education.
The genial and companionable spirit of Mr. Webster is still remembered
by his classmates, and by the close of his first college year he had
given proof of powers and aspirations which placed him far above rivalry
among his associates. "It is known," says Mr. Ticknor, "in many ways,
that, by those who were acquainted with him at this period of life, he
was already regarded as a marked man, and that to the more sagacious of
them the honors of his subsequent career have not been unexpected."
Mr. Webster completed his college course in August, 1801, and
immediately entered the office of Mr. Thompson, the next-door neighbor
of his father, as a student of law. Mr. Thompson was a gentleman of
education and intelligence, and, at a later period, a respectable
member, successively, of the House of Representatives and Senate of the
United States. He maintained a high character till his death. Mr.
Webster remained in his office as a student till, in the words of Mr.
March, "he felt it necessary to go somewhere and do something to earn a
little money." In this emergency, application was made to him to take
charge of an academy at Fryeburg in Maine, upon a salary of about one
dollar _per diem_, being what is now paid for the coarsest kind of
unskilled manual labor. As he was able, besides, to earn enough to pay
for his board and to defray his other expenses by acting as assistant to
the register of deeds for the county, his salary was all saved,--a fund
for his own professional education and to help his brother through
college.
Mr. Webster's son and one of his friends have lately visited Fryeburg
and examined these records of deeds. They are still preserved in two
huge folio volumes, in Mr. Webster's handwriting, exciting wonder how so
much work could be done in the evening, after days of close confinement
to the business of the school. They looked also at the records of the
trustees of the academy and found in them a most respectful and
affectionate vote of thanks and good-will to Mr. Webster when he took
leave of the employment.[3]
These humble details need no apology. They relate to trials, hardships,
and efforts which constitute no small part of the discipline by which a
great character is formed. During his residence at Fryeburg, Mr. Webster
borrowed (he was too poor to buy) Blackstone's Commentaries, and read
them for the first time. "Among other mental exercises," says Mr. March,
"he committed to memory Mr. Ames's celebrated speech on the British
treaty." In after life he has been heard to say, that few things moved
him more than the perusal and reperusal of this celebrated speech.
In September, 1802, Mr. Webster returned to Salisbury, and resumed his
studies under Mr. Thompson, in whose office he remained for eighteen
months. Mr. Thompson, though, as we have said, a person of excellent
character and a good lawyer, yet seems not to have kept pace in his
profession with the progress of improvement. Although Blackstone's
Commentaries had been known in this country for a full generation, Mr.
Thompson still directed the reading of his pupils on the principle of
the hardest book first. Coke's Littleton was still the work with which
his students were broken into the study of the profession. Mr. Webster
has condemned this practice. "A boy of twenty," says he, "with no
previous knowledge of such subjects, cannot understand Coke. It is folly
to set him upon such an author. There are propositions in Coke so
abstract, and distinctions so nice, and doctrines embracing so many
distinctions and qualifications, that it requires an effort not only of
a mature mind, but of a mind both strong and mature, to understand him.
Why disgust and discourage a young man by telling him he must break into
his profession through such a wall as this?" Acting upon these views,
even in his youth, Mr. Webster gave his attention to more intelligible
authors, and to titles of law of greater importance in this country than
the curious learning of tenures, many of which are antiquated, even in
England. He also gave a good deal of time to general reading, and
especially the study of the Latin classics, English history, and the
volumes of Shakespeare. In order to obtain a wider compass of knowledge,
and to learn something of the language not to be gained from the
classics, he read through attentively Puffendorff's Latin History of
England.
In July, 1804, he took up his residence in Boston. Before entering upon
the practice of his profession, he enjoyed the advantage of pursuing his
legal studies for six or eight months in the office of the Hon.
Christopher Gore. This was a fortunate event for Mr. Webster. Mr. Gore,
afterwards Governor of Massachusetts, was a lawyer of eminence, a
statesman and a civilian, a gentleman of the old school of manners, and
a rare example of distinguished intellectual qualities, united with
practical good sense and judgment. He had passed several years in
England as a commissioner, under Jay's treaty, for liquidating the
claims of citizens of the United States for seizures by British cruisers
in the early wars of the French Revolution. His library, amply
furnished with works of professional and general literature, his large
experience of men and things at home and abroad, and his uncommon
amenity of temper, combined to make the period passed by Mr. Webster in
his office one of the pleasantest in his life. These advantages, it
hardly need be said, were not thrown away. He diligently attended the
sessions of the courts and reported their decisions. He read with care
the leading elementary works of the common and municipal law, with the
best authors on the law of nations, some of them for a second and third
time; diversifying these professional studies with a great amount and
variety of general reading. His chief study, however, was the common
law, and more especially that part of it which relates to the now
unfashionable science of special pleading. He regarded this, not only as
a most refined and ingenious, but a highly instructive and useful branch
of the law. Besides mastering all that could be derived from more
obvious sources, he waded through Saunders's Reports in the original
edition, and abstracted and translated into English from the Latin and
Norman French all the pleadings contained in the two folio volumes. This
manuscript still remains.
Just as he was about to be admitted to practise in the Suffolk Court of
Common Pleas in Massachusetts, an incident occurred which came near
affecting his career for life. The place of clerk in the Court of Common
Pleas for the county of Hillsborough, in New Hampshire, became vacant.
Of this court Mr. Webster's father had been made one of the judges, in
conformity with a very common practice at that time, of placing on the
side bench of the lower courts men of intelligence and respectability,
though not lawyers. From regard to Judge Webster, the vacant clerkship
was offered by his colleagues to his son. It was what the father had for
some time looked forward to and desired. The fees of the office were
about fifteen hundred dollars _per annum_, which in those days and in
that region was not so much a competence as a fortune. Mr. Webster
himself was disposed to accept the office. It promised an immediate
provision in lieu of a distant and doubtful prospect. It enabled him at
once to bring comfort into his father's family, while to refuse it was
to condemn himself and them to an uncertain and probably harassing
future. He was willing to sacrifice his hopes of professional eminence
to the welfare of those whom he held most dear. But the earnest
dissuasions of Mr. Gore, who saw in this step the certain postponement,
perhaps the final defeat, of all hopes of professional advancement,
prevented his accepting the office. His aged father was, in a personal
interview with his son, if not reconciled to the refusal, at least
induced to bury his regrets in his own bosom. The subject was never
mentioned by him again. In the spring of the same year (1805), Mr.
Webster was admitted to the practice of the law in the Court of Common
Pleas for Suffolk county, Boston. According to the custom of that day,
Mr. Gore accompanied the motion for his admission with a brief speech in
recommendation of the candidate. The remarks of Mr. Gore on this
occasion are well remembered by those present. He dwelt with emphasis on
the remarkable attainments and uncommon promise of his pupil, and closed
with a prediction of his future eminence.
Immediately on his admission to the bar, Mr. Webster went to Amherst, in
New Hampshire, where his father's court was in session; from that place
he went home with his father. He had intended to establish himself at
Portsmouth, which, as the largest town and the seat of the foreign
commerce of the State, opened the widest field for practice. But filial
duty kept him nearer home. His father was now infirm from the advance of
years, and had no other son at home. Under these circumstances Mr.
Webster opened an office at Boscawen, not far from his father's
residence, and commenced the practice of the law in this retired spot.
Judge Webster lived but a year after his son's entrance upon the
practice of his profession; long enough, however, to hear his first
argument in court, and to be gratified with the confident predictions of
his future success.
In May, 1807, Mr. Webster was admitted as an attorney and counsellor of
the Superior Court in New Hampshire, and in September of that year,
relinquishing his office in Boscawen to his brother Ezekiel, he removed
to Portsmouth, in conformity with his original intention. Here he
remained in the practice of his profession for nine successive years.
They were years of assiduous labor, and of unremitted devotion to the
study and practice of the law. He was associated with several persons
of great eminence, citizens of New Hampshire or of Massachusetts
occasionally practising at the Portsmouth bar. Among the latter were
Samuel Dexter and Joseph Story; of the residents of New Hampshire,
Jeremiah Mason was the most distinguished. Often opposed to each other
as lawyers, a strong personal friendship grew up between them, which
ended only with the death of Mr. Mason. Mr. Webster's eulogy on Mr.
Mason will be found in one of the volumes of this collection, and will
descend to posterity an enduring monument of both. Had a more active
temperament led Mr. Mason to embark earlier and continue longer in
public life, he would have achieved a distinction shared by few of his
contemporaries. Mr. Webster, in the lapse of time, was called to perform
the same melancholy office for Judge Story.
During the greater part of Mr. Webster's practice of the law in New
Hampshire, Jeremiah Smith was Chief Justice of the State, a learned and
excellent judge, whose biography has been written by the Rev. John H.
Morison, and will well repay perusal. Judge Smith was an early and warm
friend of Judge Webster, and this friendship descended to the son, and
glowed in his breast with fervor till he went to his grave.
Although dividing with Mr. Mason the best of the business of Portsmouth,
and indeed of all the eastern portion of the State, Mr. Webster's
practice was mostly on the circuit. He followed the Superior Court
through the principal counties of the State, and was retained in nearly
every important cause. It is mentioned by Mr. March, as a somewhat
singular fact in his professional life, that, with the exception of the
occasions on which he has been associated with the Attorney-General of
the United States for the time being, he has hardly appeared ten times
as junior counsel. Within the sphere in which he was placed, he may be
said to have risen at once to the head of his profession; not, however,
like Erskine and some other celebrated British lawyers, by one and the
same bound, at once to fame and fortune. The American bar holds forth no
such golden prizes, certainly not in the smaller States. Mr. Webster's
practice in New Hampshire, though probably as good as that of any of his
contemporaries, was never lucrative. Clients were not very rich, nor the
concerns litigated such as would carry heavy fees. Although exclusively
devoted to his profession, it afforded him no more than a bare
livelihood.
But the time for which he practised at the New Hampshire bar was
probably not lost with reference to his future professional and
political eminence. His own standard of legal attainment was high. He
was associated with professional brethren fully competent to put his
powers to their best proof, and to prevent him from settling down in
early life into an easy routine of ordinary professional practice. It
was no disadvantage, under these circumstances, (except in reference to
immediate pecuniary benefit,) to enjoy some portion of that leisure for
general reading, which is almost wholly denied to the lawyer of
commanding talents, who steps immediately into full practice in a large
city.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Fifty dollars. The knowledge of this fact is derived from the
"Gloucester News," to which it was no doubt communicated by
Master Tappan.
[2] Belknap's History of New Hampshire, Vol. III. p. 328.
[3] The old school-house was burned down many years ago. The spot on
which it stood belongs to Mr. Robert J. Bradley, who has
inherited from his father a devoted friendship for Mr. Webster,
and who would never suffer any other building to be erected on
the spot, and says that none shall be during his life.