The object of the present volume is not to supersede the standard
edition of Daniel Webster's Works, in six octavo volumes, edited by
Edward Everett, and originally issued in the year 1851, by the
publishers of this volume of Selections. It is rather the purpose of the
present publication to call attention anew to the genius and character
of Daniel Webster, as a lawyer, statesman, diplomatist, patriot, and,
citizen, and, by republishing some of his prominent orations and
speeches of universally acknowledged excellence, to revive public
interest in the great body of his works. In the task of selection, it
has been impossible to do full justice to his powers; for among the
speeches omitted in this collection are to be found passages of
superlative eloquence, maxims of political and moral wisdom which might
be taken as mottoes for elaborate treatises on the philosophy of law and
legislation, and important facts and principles which no student of
history of the United States can overlook without betraying an ignorance
of the great forces which influenced the legislation of the two Houses
of Congress, from the time Mr. Webster first entered public life to the
day of his death.
It is to be supposed that, when Mr. Everett consented to edit the six
volumes of his works, Mr. Webster indicated to him the orations,
speeches, and diplomatic despatches which he really thought might be of
service to the public, and that he intended them as a kind of legacy,--a
bequest to his countrymen.
The publishers of this volume believe that a study of Mr. Webster's
mind, heart, and character, as exhibited in the selections contained in
the present volume, will inevitably direct all sympathetic readers to
the great body of Mr. Webster's works. Among the eminent men who have
influenced legislative assemblies in Great Britain and the United
States, during the past hundred and twenty years, it is curious that
only two have established themselves as men of the first class in
English and American literature. These two men are Edmund Burke and
Daniel Webster; and it is only by the complete study of every thing
which they authorized to be published under their names, that we can
adequately comprehend either their position among the political forces
of their time, or their rank among the great masters of English
eloquence and style.