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DANIEL WEBSTER
VOLUME I

DANIEL WEBSTER

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DANIEL WEBSTER

By '

CLAUDE MOORE FUESS

VOLUME I

1782 1830

With illustrations

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

1930

AH rights reserved

Published October, 1930
Reprinted October, 1930
Reprinted December, 1930

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS BOOKS

ARE PUBLISHED BY
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

IN ASSOCIATION WITH
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY

To my Wife

FOREWORD

WHEN, several years ago, I first conceived the project of a
comprehensive biography of Daniel Webster, I resolved to
begin by reading everything in existence by or about him.
This I have failed to do, for his letters are still widely distrib-
uted, and there are some which are inaccessible to the inves-
tigator. I have, however, done my best to trace all that he
ever wrote and all that has been said concerning his character
and achievements.

It is, perhaps, superfluous to state that the available sources
are very extensive; and I have been fortunate in being able
to utilize a considerable amount of material which was not at
the disposal of earlier biographers. The basis of research is
the imposing National Edition of Webster's Writings and
Speeches, published in 1903, in eighteen large volumes. This
is supplemented by original documents in the New Hampshire
Historical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and
the Congressional Library, not to mention smaller collections
in private libraries and in the papers of Caleb Gushing, Edward
Everett, and others. Not a few letters to and from Webster
are owned by individuals and are scattered widely through the
United States.

No statesman of that era was discussed more frequently
or frankly in the public press ; and the newspapers, not only
in Washington, New York, and Boston, but also in such com-
munities as Portsmouth, Keene, and Concord, are filled with
references to him. While I have lacked time for going through
all the journals of that period, I have examined many of them
in various sections of the country, and have found the labor
profitable.

viii FOREWORD

Of other first-hand material, diaries, such as those of John
Quincy Adams, Philip Hone, James K. Polk, and Ralph W.
Emerson, have been of incalculable assistance; and remi-
niscences and memoirs, like those of Harvey, Lanman, Poore,
Wentworth, Plumer, Hoar, and many others, have been help-
ful, not only with facts, but also with impressions of contem-
porary society and politics. There are naturally countless
monographs covering in detail special phases of Webster's
career and of the historical events in which he participated.
It is not an exaggeration, furthermore, to say that, in the biog-
raphies of nearly all the eminent Americans of the first half
of the nineteenth century, mention of Webster may be found.
The list is long and formidable, including not only such giants
as Clay, Calhoun, Jackson, the Adamses, Douglas, and Lincoln,
but also lesser figures, like Benton, Van Buren, Sumner, Gar-
rison, Tyler, Buchanan, Everett, Gushing, and Choate. The
names of the more important books will be found at the close
of this volume.

During Webster's long life, he was compelled again and
again to take sides on controversial questions. Even his most
ardent eulogists can hardly approve every one of his decisions,
and I have occasionally been obliged to be critical of his atti-
tude and his conduct. Whenever this has happened, I have
attempted to sustain myself by logic and by ample authority.
But there will always be honest disagreements arising from
differences in temperament, geographical location, and political
philosophy. There is also a wealth of mythical stories which
have accumulated around Webster's name, and which can now
be neither confirmed nor disproved.

It is not easy to express adequately my gratitude for the aid
which I have received from numerous acquaintances and
friends. My colleagues, Archibald Freeman, Roy E. Spencer,
Arthur W. Leonard, Horace M. Poynter, and Charles H. Forbes,
have read several of the chapters and have made helpful sug-
gestions. In the proof reading I have been aided greatly by
Mr. and Mrs. Alan R. Blackmer. Among those upon whose
knowledge I have most relied are Charles Warren, Esquire, of

FOREWORD ix

Washington, D. C. ; Worthington C. Ford and Mark A.
DeWolfe Howe, of the Massachusetts Historical Society;
Judge Elias B. Bishop, of the Superior Court of Massachusetts ;
President Ernest M. Hopkins, Professor Leon B. Richardson,
and Mr. Gilman D. Frost, all of Dartmouth College ; Reverend
Alfred R. Hussey, of Plymouth, and Reverend Alfred Gooding,
of Portsmouth ; Clarence E. Carr, of Andover, New Hamp-
shire; Wilson Olney, of Boston, who placed at my disposal
his interesting collections of manuscripts ; Charles S. Tyler, of
Beverly, who allowed me to inspect his unequaled collection
of Websteriana, and Edwin A. Bayley, of Boston, who con-
sented to let me reproduce some of his Webster engravings
and daguerreotypes ; Major Otis Hammond, of Concord, who
granted me many privileges in the New Hampshire Historical
Society; Foster W. Stearns, of Hancock, New Hampshire;
and Howard S. F. Randolph, of the New York Genealogical
and Biographical Society. Laurence M. Crosbie, of Exeter,
has allowed me to profit by his extensive researches into New
Hampshire history and has read a good share of my manuscript.
Judge A. W. Cozart, of Columbus, Georgia, has also read the
book and has given me the benefit of his legal experience and
his sympathetic counsel. My friend, Markham W. Stackpole,
of Milton, has kept me from many verbal indiscretions and
infelicities. Lewis A. Armistead, of Boston, Webster's great-
grandson, permitted me to use the unpublished manuscript
diary of his grandmother, Julia Webster Appleton. Many
other persons have advised me on matters of detail. I wish
also to acknowledge my obligation to the staffs of the Congres-
sional Library, the Boston Public Library, the New Hampshire
Historical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the
Keene, New Hampshire, Public Library, the public library of
Charleston, South Carolina, the Dartmouth College Library,
the Phillips Exeter Academy Library, and the library of
Phillips Academy, Andover, and, above all, to the Boston
Athenaeum, where much of my reading has been carried on.
To Mr. Edward A. Weeks, of the Atlantic Monthly Press, I
am under great obligation for a searching reading of my manu-

x FOREWORD

script, and many fruitful suggestions. My wife, patient under
my moods and abstractions, has sustained my courage during
long hours of toil and meditation.

It is futile to expect that a work of this scope will be abso-
lutely accurate or complete. There will be blunders and omis-
sions, no matter how much pains has been taken to correct
them. Nor will the treatment of the hero please everybody.
Webster's versatile activities as lawyer, orator, and statesman
were so broad in scope that some of them have undoubtedly
been neglected. It is my hope, however, that Daniel Webster
will emerge from these pages, not a legendary figure, but a
human personage, with weaknesses and shortcomings, perhaps,
but also with something of the glorious magnetism which
thrilled those whom he met. No one can read his utterances
and look long at his portraits without being in some degree
overwhelmed by the power and majesty of the man.

C. M. F.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD vii

I THE BACKGROUND 3

II EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 30

III MATURING YEARS 62

IV A WIDER HORIZON: WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 94
V FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS . . .122

VI A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION . . .148

VII LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX . . .176

VIII THE ATHENS OF AMERICA . . . . 197

IX THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE . . .215

X THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER .... 246

XI IN THE PUBLIC EYE 268

XII THE GREAT ORATOR 284

XIII A RESTLESS LEGISLATOR 307

XIV SLINGS AND ARROWS 339

XV THE BATTLE AGAINST NULLIFICATION . .361

ILLUSTRATIONS

DANIEL WEBSTER BY GILBERT STUART . Frontispiece

THE ENTRY OF DANIEL WEBSTER'S BIRTH IN THE SALIS-
BURY TOWN BOOK 4

BIRTHPLACE OF DANIEL WEBSTER, FRANKLIN, NEW

HAMPSHIRE 16

WHERE WEBSTER ROOMED AS A STUDENT, HANOVER,

NEW HAMPSHIRE 48

WHERE WEBSTER RECORDED DEEDS, FRYEBURG, MAINE 48

WEBSTER AS A YOUNG MAN 90

WEBSTER IN His FORTY-THIRD YEAR .... 90

THE ENTRY OF DANIEL WEBSTER'S MARRIAGE IN THE

SALISBURY CHURCH RECORDS 100

WARNER HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE . 118

GOVERNOR LANGDON'S HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH, NEW

HAMPSHIRE 118

CAROLINE LE ROY WEBSTER 358

GRACE FLETCHER WEBSTER 358

WEBSTER REPLYING TO HAYNE 374

DANIEL WEBSTER
VOLUME I

THE BACKGROUND

Born the wild Northern hills among.
From whence his yeoman father wrung
By patient toil subsistence scant,
Not competence and yet not want,
He early gained the power to pay
His cheerful, self-reliant way.

WHITTIER, Snow-Bound

Heaven bless this goodly land of our fathers ! Its rulers and its people
may commit a thousand follies, yet Heaven bless it! Next to the friends
beloved of my heart, these same hills and glens and native woods and native
streams will have my last earthly recollections.

WEBSTER, Letter to James Kent, June 5, 1832

ON a summer afternoon in 1790, a frail, black-eyed boy, bare-
footed and dressed in a tow shirt and coarse cassimere trousers,
stepped out of his father's tavern at Salisbury Lower Village,
in the upper valley of the Merrimack River. Across the high-
way was the general store kept by his school-teacher, William
Hoyt, filled with tempting things to eat and wear. There his
glance fell on a novelty, a large cotton handkerchief, crudely
printed on both sides, and, having already a passion for
literature, he bought it with the coins which were jingling in
his pocket. What he saw was the text of the Federal Consti-
tution, which had recently been ratified by the states and was
being circulated in this quaint fashion. Then and there he sat
down under a spreading elm and read it through.

More than sixty years afterward, within sight of the spot
where he made this significant purchase, Daniel Webster dic-
tated an account of it to his friend, Blatchford. "From this,"
he said, "I first learned either that there was a Constitution,
or that there were thirteen states." "I remember to have

4 DANIEL WEBSTER

read it," he added whimsically, "and have known more or less
of it ever since."

When that lad was born, on January 18, 1782, the American
colonies were functioning under the Articles of Confederation,
adopted early in the previous year. Whether the thirteen
states, with their jealousies and rivalries, could be moulded
into a coherent nation was yet to be determined. Only three
months before, the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown had
dissipated England's last hope of retaining her American pos-
sessions; but she had not yet recognized their independence,
and the exhausted patriot leaders had lapsed into lethargy,
with economic and political disorganization everywhere around
them. At Paris, the tactful Franklin was patiently awaiting
an opportunity to negotiate a peace. Lord North, still stupidly
obstinate, refused to resign, and it was not until the autumn
of 1783 that a treaty could be wrung from the British cabinet.
So far as New Hampshire citizens knew, they were still rebels,
at war with the mother country, and their future was dark
with hazards.

Of the builders of the young republic, several were already
on the stage. George Washington, his campaigns over, was
soon to retire at a little over fifty into what he hoped might be
the undisturbed placidity of Mount Vernon. John Marshall,
a budding lawyer of twenty-seven, had lately taken his seat
in the General Assembly of his state ; and Thomas Jefferson,
his kinsman and political foe, was revising his Notes on Virginia
after two terms as Governor. The precocious Alexander
Hamilton, later the leader of the Federalist Party, was as yet
more of a soldier than a statesman. John Quincy Adams was
in Paris, a lively assistant secretary to the American Mission.
In North Carolina, a raw-boned youth named Andrew Jackson
was mastering the humble trade of saddler. Somewhere in the
"Slashes," south of the Potomac, little five-year-old Henry
Clay, in homespun, was astride a horse on his way to Daricott's
Mill. Four men destined to be Webster's most relentless
opponents were also born in 1782 Thomas H. Benton, on
March 14, John C. Calhoun, on March 18, Lewis Cass, on

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THE ENTRY OF DANIEL WEBSTER'S BIRTH IN
THE SALISBURY TOWN BOOK

THE BACKGROUND 5

October 9, and Martin Van Buren, on December 5. Edward
Everett and Rufus Choate and Caleb Gushing, whose fates
were to be so inextricably interwoven with those of Webster,
were still in "the realm of the unborn."

Four generations of Websters before him had tilled the soil
of New England and were buried within its borders. There
he received his education and won his first successes. He was
to be more than once New England's candidate for the Presi-
dency. His career of over seventy years divides itself with
mathematical precision into two periods of almost equal length,
the first belonging to New Hampshire, the second mainly to
Massachusetts. From Salisbury he moved to Boscawen, and
from there successively to Portsmouth and Boston. Even
when he was officially in Washington, his real home was either
at The Elms, near his birthplace, or at Marshfield, on the shore
of the Atlantic. Webster loved New England, and she, in
return, bestowed upon him nearly every honor within her gift.

His family was of what genealogists call "sturdy New Eng-
land stock," and believers in eugenics will find in his ancestry
much to sustain their faith. Most of the many Websters in
the United States to-day trace their line back to Thomas Web-
ster, a shadowy figure who died in April 1634, at Ormsby, near
Yarmouth, in Norfolk County, England. 1 At a more remote
period, the family was probably lowland Scotch, and the name
itself means a male weaver. 2 Thomas's widow, Margaret
(or Margery), came to this country with her infant son,
Thomas, about 1635 and settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts,
later moving north to Hampton, New Hampshire. Of this son
we know little, except that he married Sarah Brewer and died,
in 1715, at Hampton, at the age of eighty-three.

Among Thomas's five sons and four daughters, the most
aggressive was Ebenezer (1667-1736), who, pushing a few miles
to the west, was one of the grantees of the town of Kingston,

1 See Dearborn's History of Salisbury, New Hampshire, p. 828 fT. This book, pub-
lished in 1890, is full of interesting material, but must be used cautiously because of
its numerous inaccuracies and inconsistencies.

2 Burns uses the word in his poem, "Willie was a wabster guid," and Stevenson
employs it in a sentence in Catriona "Tom was a wabster to his trade."

6 DANIEL WEBSTER

New Hampshire, where he settled at the opening of the
eighteenth century. He became an intrepid Indian hunter
and a guide in the company of Captain John Gilman which set
out in 1710 in pursuit of marauding redskins. By his wife,
Hannah Judkins, he had nine children, of whom the eldest son,
also named Ebenezer, was born at Kingston in 1714. This
second Ebenezer did not inherit his father's energy and has been
described as "poor, versatile, and witty, obtaining a scanty
living by hatcheling flax, cutting cord wood, shearing sheep,
etc." l He was, however, fortunate in his marriage, for, on
July 20, 1738, he took as his wife Susanna Batchelder, who
brought into the family a fresh and vigorous strain.

The true Websters, according to Daniel's testimony, had
"light complexions, sandy hair, a good deal of it, and bushy
eyebrows," and were "rather slender than broad or corpulent." 2
But Susanna was the descendant of the Reverend Stephen
Bachiler (1561-1660), the first settled clergyman in the prov-
ince of New Hampshire, an enterprising and obstinate man,
tall, with very swarthy skin, black coarse hair, and sultry eyes,
"like sloes," quite different from the blonde and freckled
Websters. He was a refractory personality, with some uncler-
ical weaknesses of the flesh. His great-great-granddaughter,
Susanna, was a woman "of remarkable strength of character,
robust in form, with black hair, a piercing black eye, and dark
complexion." 3 Writing to his son, Fletcher, Daniel Webster
once said :

I believe we are all indebted to my father's mother for a large por-
tion of the little sense and character which belongs to us. Her name
was Susannah Batchelder ; she was the daughter of a clergyman, and
a woman of uncommon strength of understanding. If I had had
many boys, I should have called one of them "Batchelder." 4

1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register y VI, i.

2 National Edition of Webster's Writings and Speeches, XVII, 3.

3 Dearborn, Salisbury, p. 829.

4 See the Batchelder-Batcheller Genealogy , by Frederick Clifton Pierce, published in
1898, which, however, cannot be entirely relied upon. Several eminent persons trace
their lineage back to the Reverend Stephen Bachiler, but the statement frequently
made that John Greenleaf Whittier and Caleb Gushing were among his direct descend-
ants has no foundation in fact, and their supposed physical resemblance to Webster
was not due to heredity.

THE BACKGROUND 7

Her oldest son, Ebenezer, born on April 22, 1739, at East
Kingston, was Daniel Webster's father. His childhood was
spent on the farm, but he was then bound out to a tyrannical
master, and, at the age of fourteen, ran away to live with his
benefactor, Colonel Ebenezer Stevens. 1 While still a boy, he
enlisted as a private in the famous "Rangers/' led by Major
Robert Rogers, 2 and saw active military service with General
Jeffrey Amherst during his invasion of Canada in 1759.
Returning with the rank of captain, he married Mehitable
Smith, of Kingston, and with a party of discharged veterans,
headed by Colonel Stevens, pushed north up the Merrimack
to a district designated as Stevenstown, which their patron had
obtained by grant from Governor Benning Wentworth. On
the northern boundary of the new township which was
christened Salisbury and still bears that name, although some-
what altered in shape and size Captain Webster was allotted,
in 1762, some 225 acres of land.

At first, he had no roof to shelter him. He and his com-
panions had to dig a well, clear the virgin forest, and sow and
plant the soil. Soon he built for himself a log cabin on high
ground three miles west of the Merrimack, close to a foamy
stream which he called Punch Brook. He was indeed of pioneer
stuff, just as rugged, just as inured to hardship, just as patient
under adversity, as any "Forty-Niner" or early settler on the
bleak Iowa prairies.

By 1767, the population of Salisbury was 210, and the grow-
ing town was incorporated a year later, in the name of His
Majesty George III. The New Hampshire clearings, hewn
out laboriously from the pines which clothed the hills, were
dotted with outcroppings of rock, and the soil at its best was
thin. Some of the farms at the base of Mount Kearsarge were
styled "Little Gains/' "Hard Scrabble," and "Dungeswamp"
the last being an Indian word to signify the poorest land in

1 Dearborn, Salisbury, pp. 829-30.

2 These troops, enlisted from the hardiest and boldest young men in New England,
carried both snowshoes and skates during the winter months, and achieved some bril-
liant military exploits. It was a mark of distinction to belong to Rogers's company.

8 DANIEL WEBSTER

creation. 1 But soon, In the midst of the wilderness, could be
seen charred stumps, with a few fruit trees here and there, and
some scanty wheat peeping up after the spring rains. The
forest abounded in black and brown bears, lynxes, and gray
wolves, and Captain Webster killed many a fat buck for his
larder. The beaver had built a dam within a few rods of his
cabin. It was a wild country in the "1760*8," and there are
sections of it which are almost as wild to-day.

In front of Ebenezer's house, to the southwest, rose Searle's
Hill, called by Webster Mount Pisgah, on the summit of which
the first settlers erected their church, a large, two-storied
structure, without a steeple. Because of its commanding sit-
uation, it served also as a watchtower. But the ceaseless
snows of winter blocked the road to the top, and it was also
discovered that the more fertile tracts lay on lower ground.
To-day that meetinghouse, with its adjacent cemetery, has
vanished, and its very site, like the other land on the side of
Searle's Hill, has reverted to timber. The scars cut by the
pioneers have been obliterated by dense underbrush. Nature
has triumphed over man. Ebenezer Webster, however, did
not easily abandon the conflict. On the fringes of civilization,
with hardly a white man's habitation between him and the
St. Lawrence, on debatable ground where Indians frequently
alarmed his wife and children, he slowly won a temporary
advantage over climate and soil, and eked out a subsistence
for himself and his family.

Ebenezer's wife, Mehitable, about whom little is known
except that she bore him five children, 2 died in March 1774,
leaving him with an eight-year-old girl and two small boys,

1 See Webster's speech "On the Opening of the Northern Railroad to Grafton, N. EL,
August 28, 1847'* (National Edition, IV, 107-11).

2 There is some confusion as to the birth dates of the children of Ebenezer Webster
by Mehitable Smith. Olle, or Olivia, born January 28, 1762, died in infancy ; Ebene-
zer, born July 16, 1764, died of the same epidemic which struck down his older sister;
Susanna, born October 25, 1766, later married John Colby, of Andover, New Hamp-
shire, and died in that town, March 23, 1804; David, born May I, 1769, became a
farmer in Canada, married a widow, Rebecca Hun toon, and left a large family; and
Joseph, born March 25, 1772, died unmarried, January 20, 1810. No one of them
seems to have displayed marked ability of any kind.

THE BACKGROUND 9

the youngest a mere infant. Several stories have been handed
down regarding his second marriage, the best authenticated
of which states that Captain Webster, in his masculine perplex-
ity regarding his motherless family, consulted "Aunt Ruth/'
the wife of his brother, William, who lived on the slope of
Searle's Hill. When he had explained his problem, she thought
a minute and replied, "Eben, haven't you heard of Nabby
Eastman ? She 's a tailoress by trade and knows what life
is. In every respect she 's a most excellent person. She 's up
from below right now, visiting her relatives here. Go home,
put on your Sunday suit, and ride over and see Nabby/' 1 This
counsel had the ring of common sense, if not of romance. Cap-
tain Webster accepted it, and, in August of that year, Abigail
Eastman, of Salisbury, Massachusetts, was united to him in
marriage by Parson Jonathan Searle. When the two came
down from the hilltop to Ebenezer Webster's log house, the
bridegroom said simply, "These, Nabby, are my children."

Abigail Eastman, the mother of Daniel Wejjster, was thirty-
seven years old at the time of her wedding and had undoubtedly
long been classed as an "old maid." 2 She was one of the
"black Eastmans/' of Welsh origin, her immigrant ancestor
having been Roger Eastman (Easman), who came to America
in 1638 in the ship Confidence and settled at Salisbury, Massa-
chusetts. 3 Abigail's father was Major Roger Eastman, "a

1 This story is told in fuller detail in Dearborn's History of Salisbury > pp. 746-47,
quoted from an article in the New York Evangelist for March i, 1883, giving the recol-
lections of Mrs. Betsey Webster, who died at Palmyra, New York, in 1880, aged eighty-
seven years. It doubtless came down to her as a family tradition. Another version,
slightly different in minor respects, is to be found in Towne's Birthplace of Daniel
Webster, published in 1927, on page 4.

2 She was born on July 19, 1737, the youngest of four children, and was two years
older than her husband.

3 Webster's ancestry, while neither Pilgrim nor Puritan, was nevertheless largely
Anglo-Saxon and Celtic, with hardly a trace of the Latin element. Those who are
curious to follow out in detail the ramifications of Webster's ancestry and kin should
examine The Genealogy of the Webster Family to Which Daniel Webster Belonged, an
unpublished manuscript by Mabel Fern Paling, a bound typewritten copy of which is
deposited with the New England Historical Genealogical Society, in Boston. On the
general subject of family pride, Webster expressed himself in the Plymouth Oration :
"There may be, and there often is, indeed, a regard for ancestry, which nourishes
only a weak pride; as there is also a care for posterity which only disguises an
habitual avarice or hides the workings of a low and groveling vanity. But there

io DANIEL WEBSTER

soldier bold," who was bred a house carpenter, but, having
"a noble and lofty soul," went out to fight the French and lost
a leg; 1 and her mother was Gerusha (Jerusha) Fitz, described
by Daniel as handsome, with "dark, beautiful eyes, inimitable
teeth, and hair as black as a coal." 2 Soon after their daugh-
ter's belated matrimonial venture, her parents came to live with
her in New Hampshire, where they died in Captain Webster's
house. 3 A neighbor of "Nabby " Webster's once said that she
had " a dark complexion, with strongly marked features, indica-
tive of a strong mind and sound sense," 4 and another acquaint-
ance remembered that her countenance wore " the expression
of strength rather than beauty." There is in existence a sil-
houette showing her as a decidedly plain, rather large-nosed
woman, of ample proportions. Although Daniel referred to her
with affection, he did not seem drawn to her as he was to his
father; but she was a conscientious mother to Ebenezer's
children and a faithful helpmeet to her husband.

Captain Webster had qualities which made him a leader in
the scattered community around the headwaters of the Merri-
mack. As early as 1764, when his cabin had just been com-
pleted, he was named Highway Surveyor. Five years later,
he was chosen for the first of many terms as Moderator of Town
Meeting a position which, in New England, is seldom ac-
corded to a citizen who cannot compel the obedience of even
the most unruly voter. He also served intermittently as Town
Clerk, Selectman, and Coroner. But it was the outbreak of
another war which offered him his real opportunity. He ob-
is also a moral and philosophical respect for our ancestors, which elevates the character
and improves the heart. Next to the sense of religious duty and moral feeling, I hardly
know what should bear with a stronger obligation on a liberal and enlightened mind,
than a consciousness of alliance with excellence which has departed ; and a conscious-
ness, too, that in its acts and conduct, and even in its sentiments and thoughts, it
may be actively operating on the happiness of those who come after it."

National Edition, XVI, 663.

2 Webster's statement to Charles H. Warren, Proceedings of the Massachusetts His-
torical Society, XV, 280-81.

3 Daniel Webster wrote that Major Eastman planted trees for fruit on the Webster
farm, "and among others planted a pear tree about 1770, which is now in full bearing."
(Letter to Warren, September 19, 1852, National Edition, XVI, 663.)

< Ibid., XVII, 60.

THE BACKGROUND n

Gained in 1774 a commission as Captain in the mi!itia > and, as
soon as the news of Lexington and Concord penetrated to Salis-
bury, he marched with some of his men under "forced draft"
to Cambridge to meet with the Massachusetts Committee
of Safety. While stationed at Dorchester Heights, he was
assigned to guard duty around Washington's tent. The
Commander-in-Chief summoned Captain Webster to his
headquarters, consulted him regarding patriotic sentiment
in New Hampshire, offered him some refreshment, and closed
the interview by warmly shaking his hand. 1

As one of the Salisbury Selectmen, Captain Webster signed
the famous "Association Test," engaging, for the citizens of
the town, "that we will, to the utmost of our power, at the
risque of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile
proceedings of the British fleets and armies against the United
States." 2 He was quite ready himself to undergo the hazards
of battle. At Bennington, on August 16, 1777, he conducted
himself with conspicuous valor, being among the first to scale
the Tory breastworks; and he emerged from the hand-to-
hand conflict with his features so besmeared with powder as
to be hardly recognizable.

Like many of the colonial officers, Captain Webster usually
came back to his fireside for the winter months, setting out
in the spring, after the roads were cleared of snow and mud, to
join his command. As a volunteer without pay, he was wel-
comed by General Washington. In August 1778 he partici-
pated in the expedition to Rhode Island, and in 1780 he was
in charge of a company in the regiment of Colonel Moses
Nichols, assigned to the protection of West Point. When he
and his men were posted on guard over Washington's tent on
the evening after Arnold's treason had been disclosed, the
General said to him earnestly, "Captain Webster, I believe

1 Harvey, Reminiscences, pp. 5-6.

2 According to a story told by Harvey, Webster was appointed on a committee to
determine the amount which each citizen ought to contribute to the conduct of the
war. When the richest man in the community objected that his share was too large,
Webster said, " Sir, our authorities require us to fight and pay. Now, you must pay
or fight." (IUd.> p. 7.)

12 DANIEL WEBSTER

I can trust you." * It is easy to understand why Washington
was idolized in the Webster family.

Writing of him as he was in his prime, Daniel described his
father as "tall, six feet, or six feet within a half an inch, with a
broad and full chest, hair still of an unchanged black, features
rather large and prominent, a Roman nose, and eyes of brilliant
black." 2 General John Stark, referring to Daniel's Moorish
complexion, said that it was like that of Ebenezer Webster,
which burnt gunpowder could not change. 3 He had a martial
bearing, and once, at Exeter, when a mob gathered at the Court
House, he merely stepped to a balcony and, in a stentorian
voice, shouted, "I command you to disperse." 4 The rioters
melted away. Daniel said of him that he had a heart which
"he seemed to have borrowed from a lion," 5 and he kept his
intrepid spirit to the end of his days. Although he had never
been to school, he taught himself to read and write ; and his
letters are good in handwriting, and no worse in spelling than
those of some college graduates of that generation. Every-
thing which we hear of Ebenezer Webster shows him to have
been a man of native common sense, strong tenacity, and force-,
ful character. 6 It is regrettable that no portrait of him was
ever painted.

Although Captain Webster could be stern, he had also a
grim humor which made him an agreeable companion. Daniel'
spoke of him as "deeply religious, but not sour," and he was
for many years an elder in Salisbury Church. Even in his

1 Harvey, p. 7.

2 National Edition, XVII, 4.
/#, 5-6.

4 This incident occurred in 1786, coincidental with Shays's Rebellion in Massa-
chusetts. Want of money and business depression led about two hundred men, armed
with muskets and clubs, to march into Exeter from the surrounding country and send
in a petition to the Legislature for the redress of their grievances. Surrounding the
Court House where the Legislature was then in session, they demanded an immediate
answer. It was then that Ebenezer Webster appeared, with General Sullivan and
others, and issued his command.

5 National Edition, XVIII, 229.

6 Ebenezer Webster is listed among the subscribers from New Hampshire to Jeremy
Belknap's History of New Hampshire, in 1792. This list, numbering over a hundred,
includes most of the distinguished men in the state at that period.

THE BACKGROUND 13

old age, when he was crippled by rheumatism, he enjoyed his
joke and had an infectious laugh. His readiness to efface
himself and make sacrifices for his children is a trait which will
become evident later in this narrative.

There were moments when a wider field of activity seemed
about to open for Ebenezer Webster. He served capably in
the Legislature, 1 and he was chosen in 1788 as a delegate to the
State Convention for considering the proposed Federal Con-
stitution. Although he himself is supposed to have favored the
Constitution, he was hampered by the opposition of an advisory
committee of his townspeople, who objected to it on the ground
that it tolerated slavery. It was then, according to Daniel
Webster, that his father made the following speech :

Mr. President, I have listened to the arguments for and against the
Constitution. I am convinced such a government as that Constitu-
tion will establish, if adopted, ^government acting directly on the
people of the states, is necessary for the common defence and the
general welfare. It is the only government which will enable us to
pay off the national debt, the debt which we owe for the Revolution,
^nd which we are bound in honor fully and fairly to discharge.
Besides, I have followed the lead of Washington through seven years
of war, and I have never been misled. His name is subscribed to this
Constitution. He will not mislead us now. I shall vote for its
adoption. 2

Whatever the actual views- of Ebenezer Webster may have
been, these words sound suspiciously as if they had been put
into his mouth by his son aut Casar aut nihiL There is a
further difficulty. The State Convention, after assembling
at Exeter in February, adjourned because a majority of the
delegates had been instructed by their towns not to favor the
Constitution. At its second session, held at Concord, in June,
Ebenezer Webster was one of four delegates present but not

1 In 1778-80, he was Representative from Salisbury and Boscawen, and he was the
Representative from Salisbury in 1790-91. In 1788, he was chosen by the Legislature
as Senator from Hillsborough County, no Senator having been elected by the people
of that district, and he took a conspicuous part in the committee work of that session.

2 Curtis, Life of Daniel Webster, I,

I 4 DANIEL WEBSTER

voting when the issue was finally presented. 1 He did, how-
ever, as one of the presidential electors from New Hampshire,
cast his vote in 1789 for Washington. He once said that, if
he had had a broader education, he might have been a Congress-
man under the new Federal Government. His ambition had
to be satisfied, however, with a commission in 1791 as Justice
of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas a position which
brought him some distinction and a small annual salary.

"Nabby" and "Eben" Webster had five children. The
oldest, Mehitable, named for Captain Webster's first wife,
was born in 1775, became a "noted teacher," and died un-
married at the age of thirty-nine. Abigail, born in 1778, later
married William Haddock and died at twenty-seven. Then
came two sons, Ezekiel, born on March 1 1, 1780, and Daniel,
and finally Sarah, the youngest, born in 1784, who married
her cousin, Ebenezer Webster, and died in 1811.

The first three were born in the log cabin. Towards the
close of the Revolution, however, Captain Webster built for
his family a small frame dwelling only a few rods distant, and
in this Daniel first saw the light of day. A drawing of this
structure made by Charles Lanman, Webster's private secre-
tary, while the latter was bending over his shoulder, was repro-
duced as a woodcut for the frontispiece of Lanman's The Pri-
vate Life of Daniel Webster, published in 1852 a few weeks after
Webster's death. According to Lanman, it was one-storied,
with a high gabled roof, a single chimney, one front door with a
window on either side, three windows at each end, with four
rooms and an addition in the rear for the kitchen. 2 The sketch
shows a well-curb and sweep at the eastern end, with a noble

1 Captain Webster's part in this Convention is still something of a mystery. There
is a tradition that the four delegates not voting were detained not unwillingly at a
dinner given by a certain Timothy Walker. Those interested will consult A History
of the New Hampshire Convention for the Discussion and Decision of the Federal Con-
stitution, by Joseph B. Walker, published in 1888. A clear statement of the problems
involved is presented by Fisher in The True Daniel Webster, pp. 26-28. New Hamp-
shire was the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, and her acceptance of it made the
Federal Government a reality. Lewis Cass, a native of Exeter, remembered the
bonfires which blazed in the streets on the evening of the day when the Constitution
was adopted.

2 Lanman, The Private Life of Daniel Webster, p. 1 1.

THE BACKGROUND 15

elm towering above. Behind the house was a large barn in
the midst of partly cleared pasture. Directly in front was a
meadow sloping gradually down to Punch Brook and degen-
erating into a bog at the edge of the alder-bordered stream.

When this building was removed or destroyed cannot be
ascertained, but General Lyman, visiting the spot in 1849,
reported that nothing was left of it except the cellar. 1 This
testimony was corroborated by Edward Everett, who wrote,
"It has long disappeared, but the spot where it stood is well
known, and is covered by a house since built/* 2 Everett
doubtless referred to the Sawyer house, erected in the late
eighteenth century and still extant.

Local tradition, however, maintained that a portion of the
first frame dwelling had been preserved as an ell, or shed,
incorporated in the larger Sawyer farmhouse. 3 In 1904, a
group of public-spirited citizens formed the Webster Birth-
place Association, later expanded into a larger organization for
restoring the place where Webster was born. Some investi-
gations revealed what was assumed to be the site of Ebenezer
Webster's home, and, after the ell had been removed to this
stone foundation, the remainder was reconstructed in general
conformity with the original design. 4 The title was transferred
in 1917 to the State of New Hampshire, by which it is now

1 " Not a vestige of that habitation remains, to mark the place, unless it is the cellar,
now partly filled up, and the trunk of an ancient apple-tree, the top of which is dead,
but from which, near the earth, are sprouting forth a few thriving branches." (Lyman,
Life and Memorials of Daniel 'Webster, I, 170.)

2 National Edition, I. 8. Everett's Biographical Memoir, published first in 1851,
was unquestionably read by Webster himself, and can, therefore, be relied upon in
most essential particulars.

3 In 1894, tne New Hampshire Historical Society made a pilgrimage to Franklin
and visited " the room in which the famous lawyer, orator, and statesman first opened
his eyes to the light of day, as established by indisputable evidence of Dr. J. J. Dearborn,
the historian of Salisbury, who was present and gave the company much interesting
information."

4 The model selected by the architect was a drawing by H. Billings, engraved by
E. A. Fowle and printed as the frontispiece to the first volume of Webster's Works in
1851. According to Lanman, this sketch represents, not the birthplace, but the
property adjoining it, and " was engraved by mistake, or, at any rate, without Mr.
Webster's sanction." Lanman added, "The authentic drawing was given to the
engraver, but he strangely thought proper to substitute the handsome but false picture
for the homely but accurate one." (Lanman, p. 65.)

16 DANIEL WEBSTER

maintained. The birthplace in its restored form does not to-day
altogether correspond to the description given by Lanman,
but it is probable that the older portion is part of the original
Webster dwelling.

As one to-day looks south from the birthplace, there is not
another roof visible, and the seclusion is impressive. A farmer
and his son still mow and rake and load the hay in the pasture
along Punch Brook as Captain Webster and his children used
to do, and they unhesitatingly admit that Salisbury has a
stubborn soiL Jagged boulders dot the meadow, and there
are boggy patches in the hollows. From its edges one may
step directly into dense bushes, and from them into what seems
like primeval forest. Searle's Hill, its summit now inaccessible
except to the pedestrian, stands out as it did when the alarmed
settlers kindled their beacons at the top; and the peak of
rocky Kearsarge, nearly three thousand feet in elevation, still
dominates the western landscape. Punch Brook, formed on
the Webster farm by the mingling of two smaller streams, has
its foamy pools where trout lie hidden. On its banks just
below the bridge have been uncovered the foundation walls of
what must have been Captain Webster's sawmill, and a section
of an old "up-and-down" saw, together with a rusty axe dug
up from the cellar, are preserved in the Birthplace Museum-
Giant elms, which were saplings when Daniel roamed the coun-
try side, stand guard over the clearing.

In the new frame house, which must have seemed very
luxurious to the Websters, Daniel Webster was born, in the
very midst of a bleak New England winter, assisted into the
world by the local midwife. He was a "crying baby/' of
whose life the sturdy mother often despaired. 1 In the lofty
church on the hill, during the summer following his birth, the
child was baptized by Parson Jonathan Searle, wearing his
customary powdered wig, deerskin breeches, long silk stock-
ings, with silver knee and shoe buckles, and an ample surplice

1 Webster remembered having a long illness, and hearing his father say to Abigail
Webster, **We must give him up; we never can raise this child." (Harvey,
P- 397-)

ffi

ft.

<:
DC

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THE BACKGROUND 17

and gown. 1 There had never been a Daniel in the Webster
family, but the mother christened her sons after her two
brothers, Ezekiel and Daniel.

When he was barely two years old, Daniel was moved with
all the family treasures to a new farm in the valley of the Merri-
mack, at Salisbury Lower Village, about three miles to the
east. On his military expeditions, Captain Webster had seen
agricultural land which made him realize the poverty of the
soil at the base of Searle's Hill ; and he had also to consider
the second Mrs. Webster, who preferred a less isolated place
of residence. He bought sixty acres, and one-half of a hun-
dred-acre lot, from Sarah Call, for 155 pounds, reckoned at
the rate of three shillings per bushel of Indian corn a trans-
action indicating some of the financial difficulties of those pre-
carious days at the close of the Revolution. The area thus
acquired was about two and one-half miles south of the junc-
tion of the Pemigewasset and the Winnepesaukee, in the fertile
intervale. On the farm were the remains of a log fort, one of
the last of the stockades constructed along the frontier as a
protection against the Indians. In a cabin in the valley, a
Mrs. Philip Call had been massacred by a band of marauding
redskins, while her daughter-in-law, with a tiny baby, managed
to escape death by hiding behind the chimney. 2 The land
was then in Salisbury, but in 1828 was made a part of the town-
ship of Franklin.

The new dwelling of the Websters was a frame building of
considerable size, with two stories and garret. There, for the
next fifteen years, Captain Webster maintained a tavern for
passing travelers. It occupied a strategic position where the
highway, the earliest one laid out within the town limits,

1 Daniel used to tell with gusto the story, related to him by one who saw the incident,
of how, after the baptism, Mrs. Clay's ample bonnet, bedecked with ribbons, blew off
and was carried down the slope by the wind. At her request, the parson strutted
after it, but too slowly, refusing to unbend his dignity. Finally the exasperated lady
shouted. " Searle, you devil, you, why don't you run ? " This appeal was irresistible,
and the clergyman, throwing off his pride, hastened his pace, captured the bonnet, and
restored it to the wearer. (Lyman, 1, 184-85.)

2 The story, as Webster used to relate it, is told in Lyman, I, 155-56. See also
National Edition, XVI, 525-26, and XVIII, 536.

x8 DANIEL WEBSTER

after turning west from the Merrimack for perhaps a third of a
mile, curved sharply again to the north. Recently this portion
of the road has been straightened, and the old thoroughfare is
little more than a grass-grown path; while the broad modern
boulevard, bearing the name of the Daniel Webster Highway,
is traversed daily by thousands of automobiles on the way to
White Mountain resorts or to mill cities along the Merrimack.
Webster described it as "a spot of absolute quiet/' l but the
railroad, laid across it in 1846, transformed that district, and
the automobile has completed the metamorphosis which the
locomotive began.

The Merrimack at this point is rather deep and narrow, with
steep banks rising perpendicularly from its eastern shore.
On the western side, however, where the Webster farm was
located, lies a level stretch, an alluvial deposit of an earlier
period, fully half a mile wide, and, when properly cultivated,
very productive. Behind it to the west the hills rise gradually to
the Center Road Village and Salisbury Heights. When Captain
Webster transported his family, he followed a rough road down
Punch Brook to the spot where it falls into the Merrimack, and
then turned south for some rods until he reached his new acres.

Except when the summer foliage softens its contours, the
landscape in this section of New Hampshire seems stern and
pitiless. Bleak ridges, gray with outcroppings of granite,
rise from a sombre forest. If you wander far from the main
motor highways, you find yourself on "ribbon 3 ' roads, lined
with tumble-down stone walls, with an occasional deserted
farmhouse, its roof open to the rains and its blinds hanging
loose upon their hinges. In the more solitary places, the
pastures are reverting to undergrowth, and the farmers who
have dung to them have almost forgotten how to smile. The
scenery is not unlike that in the English Westmorland or the
Scottish Highlands, but no Wordsworth or Scott has immor-
talized it. 2 Writing of it towards the close of his life, Webster

1 Webster to Fillmore, July 13, 1852 (National Edition, XVIII, 535).

2 Robert Frost, especially in North of Boston^ has caught more of the spirit of the
New Hampshire countryside than any other poet.

THE BACKGROUND 19

said, "This is a very picturesque country. The hills are high,
numerous, and irregular some with wooded summits., and
some with rocky heads as white as snow. ... I really think
this region is the true Switzerland of the United States/' l

The climate is subject to disconcerting extremes of heat and
cold. Winter sets in early and continues long, 2 and in some
years the snow does not melt until the end of April Ffosts
have been recorded there in July, and in February the rural
roads are packed with colossal drifts. Readers of Whittier's
Snow-Bound have in their imaginations a perfectly drawn picture
of what Daniel Webster must often have experienced when he
looked out and saw

No cloud above, no earth below,
A universe of sky and snow !

In midsummer, on the other hand, there are likely to be
periods of intense, oppressive heat, terminated by thunder-
storms of extraordinary violence. And then, for compensation,
there will come in July and August afternoons of amazing
beauty, with a light breeze tempering the sun's rays and a
romantic glow investing the hills. The chief quality of the
climate is its infinite variety. Any weather, good or bad, may
be expected at any time.

A post-rider made the trip on horseback once a week between
Boston and Concord, New Hampshire, sometimes carrying
farther north 'copies of the Columbian Centinel and the Concord
Gazette. Writing of the year 1805, Webster said, "Stage-
coaches, then, no more ran into the center of New Hampshire
than they ran to Baffin's Bay." 3 But biographers have some-
what overemphasized the isolation of the youthful Webster.
The tavern on the valley highway was an oasis where travelers

1 Webster to Mrs. Cheney, September 29, 1845 (National Edition, XVI, 675).
He added, " I am attracted to this particular spot by very strong feelings. It is the
scene of my early years."

2 Thomas W. Thompson, writing from Salisbury Lower Village in October 1804,
described a storm which deposited snow a foot deep in the woods and wreaked immense
damage upon the neighboring orchards. (Ibid. y XVII, 190.)

3 National Edition, XVII, 22.

20 DANIEL WEBSTER

paused for rest and refreshment; and, as the eighteenth cen-
tury drew to a close, the population along the Merrimack was
rapidly increasing. 1 The Websters had communication with
the outside world. Captain Webster's political activities
drew him frequently to Concord, the capital of the state, less
than twenty miles to the south. Probably Daniel never felt
the loneliness attributed to him by historians.

It is not easy, in these days of rapid and cheap transportation,
of readily obtainable comforts and luxuries, and of entertain-
ment furnished by motion pictures, magazines, and radios,
to imagine what life was like in Salisbury in the last decade of
the eighteenth century. Of the 150,000 people in New Hamp-
shire, a large proportion, including even clergymen, lawyers,
and physicians, practised husbandry, and each farmer was
virtually self-supporting. He raised all his own food, and his
womenfolk spun and wove their own clothes. Hulled corn,
hominy, hasty pudding, pork and beans, and beef were all
products of his estate, and he even manufactured his own cider
and rum, which he consumed in large quantities on festival
occasions. 2 Stoves were not introduced until well into the
nineteenth century. Joints were roasted either in the "tin
kitchen" in front of the huge open fireplace or in the spacious
brick oven heated by wood. Vegetables were boiled in kettles
suspended on the adjustable iron hooks at the corner of the
hearth. Corn was pounded in a rough wooden mortar, and
the dishes were either wooden or pewter. At night, the only
illumination came from candles or from the open fire, fed with
pine-knots, which was the centre of household activity.

And, for the winter fireside meet,
Between the andirons* straddling feet,
The mug of cider simmered slow,

1 Even in 1767, there were 752 people in Concord, 285 in Boscawen, 502 in Canter-
bury, on the other side of the Merrimack, and 210 in Salisbury. The population
of New Hampshire in 1800 was 183,868.

2 " Among husbandmen, cyder is their common drink. Malt liquor is not so fre-
quent as its wholesomeness deserves/' (Belknap, History of New Hampshire, III,
265.)

THE BACKGROUND 21

The apples sputtered in a row,
And, close at hand, the basket stood
With nuts from brown October's wood. 1

The blaze on the hearth had to be covered with ashes before
the master of the house went to bed, for there were no matches,
and the rekindling of the fire could not be neglected. Carpets
were still unknown, but the floors were sometimes sprinkled
with white sand. Outdoors each thrifty housewife had her
mash-tub, in which ashes were leached for making soap.

Some flax was then grown in the township, and there are
still hidden away in garrets the odd-looking implements once
used for its breaking, swingling, carding, and spinning. Eze-
kiel and Daniel probably wore suits colored from the dye-pot
which stood in the chimney corner. The women went about
their homes in petticoats, but "dressed up" when visitors
came. On Sunday, people donned their best garments and
rode to church, not merely to sing hymns and listen to the
tedious sermons, but also to learn what had happened during
the week ; and the lunch at noon was a welcome opportunity
for gossip. Everybody was up and stirring on week days
before sunrise, and nobody was awake long after sundown.
Traveling was uncomfortable, and there were women who
never, from the cradle to the grave, went outside the limits of
the town. Wagons were just coming in, but they had no
springs, and the roads were very rough. The first sleigh in
Salisbury was owned by Ebenezer Webster.

Agriculture was carried on under what seem to us primitive
conditions. The soil was turned by a huge plow, twelve or
fifteen feet long, which it took six yoke of oxen to draw, with
one man riding on the beam to keep its nose in the ground.
Shovels were wooden, shod with iron, and the pitchforks, made
by the local blacksmith, were very heavy. Captain Webster
brought to Salisbury, in 1765, the stones for a grist-mill, drag-
ging them in on an ox-sled. In the Webster household, as in
those of their neighbors, specie was rare, and a system of barter

1 Whittier, Snow-Bound, Cambridge Edition, p. 401.

22 DANIEL WEBSTER

had to be adopted. Although he labored incessantly, Captain
Webster was never prosperous and was seldom free from the
menace of debt.

For all the ordinary ailments simple remedies sufficed, and
the physician was summoned only in the most serious emer-
gencies. The death rate, especially among children, was ex-
ceedingly high, but those who survived infancy were likely
to be of such tough fibre as to withstand most diseases. This
explains many cases of remarkable longevity. The fact that
all but two of Ebenezer Webster's ten children reached matu-
rity indicates that the stock had unusual vitality.

Daniel was the thinnest and feeblest of "Nabby" Webster's
flock, and she once rode with him on horseback to Little Boar's
Head, on the seacoast, in order to test the effect of salt-water
bathing upon him. Whenever he told this story, his eyes filled
with tears, and he would end, "There was a mother for you ! " l
He was not allowed to do any of the heavy chores, but was per-
mitted to spend his time largely in play. There were, of course,
light tasks for him to perform. He yoked the oxen, curried
the horses, drove the cows to pasture, followed the mowers with
a wooden spreader, and rode the horse to harrow between rows
of corn at weeding season. In after life, he liked to reminisce
about those boyhood days. In 1837, he said proudly to an
audience in St. Louis, "I am a farmer, and on the yellow sands
of the east, many a time have I tilled my father's field, and
followed my father's plough." 2 His fondness for Gray's Elegy
was due to such realistic stanzas as :

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield :
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke :

How jocund did they drive their team a-field !
How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke !

As is inevitable with the youngest boy in a large household,
Daniel was a family pet. He liked to pitch quoits and to

1 Harvey, p. 317. According to Harvey, Webster could find nothing away from
home that equaled his mother's cooking, and once wrote her from Hanover a poetical
letter heralding his arrival and asking her to have ready for him his favorite dish of
chickens and pork.

2 National Edition, XIII, 80.

THE BACKGROUND 23

wrestle, and on winter afternoons he coasted down the long hills
or skated on the river. Of the period until he was fourteen,
he said, "A great deal of the time I was sick, and when well
was exceedingly slender, and apparently of feeble system.** 1
This frailty was the excuse for giving him more schooling than
had been accorded his older brothers and sisters. And yet,
in 1839, thirteen years before his death, he noted that, at the
age of fifty-seven, he had outlived them all.

Taught his letters by his mother, Daniel could not remem-
ber a time when he was unable to read. His first Bible was
her gift, and his copious quotations from it in after years prove
that its style and substance were well assimilated. Of its
influence upon him Webster once said to Lanman :

My father had a sonorous voice, an untaught but correct ear, and a
keen perception of all that was beautiful or sublime in thought. How
often after the labors of the day, before twilight had deepened into
obscurity, would he read to me his favorite portions of the Bible, the
Book of Job, the Prayer of Habakkuk, and extracts from Isaiah ! It
was doubtless his impressive manner on such occasions, his suffused
eye, his broken voice, and reverential intonation, that gave me a taste
for the inspired authors, and preserved me from that danger of neg-
lect into which our early familiarity with these books a familiarity
in the meantime rather with the sound of the words than with their
sense and beauties too often threatens to precipitate us. 2

In this description we are reminded of how in "The Cotter's
Saturday Night"

The priest-like father reads the sacred page,
How Abram was the friend of God on high . . .

Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry;
Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire;

Or other holy Seers that tune the sacred lyre.

When he was well enough, he was sent at irregular intervals
to the migratory schools which even the least enterprising
communities in New England established as soon as their
churches had been organized. His teachers were semi-itiner-

1 National Edition, XVII, 9. 2 IKd., XIII, 572.

2 4 DANIEL WEBSTER

ant and usually poorly qualified for instructing others. " Noth-
ing was taught but reading and writing/' said Webster in his
Autobiography. 1 Sometimes the school was kept in the Lower
Village, close by his home ; at other seasons he had to walk two
or three miles each way, morning and afternoon, carrying his
luncheon with him; and when it was being held even farther
from his home, he was "boarded out" at the house of a family
friend. His first master was Thomas Chase, of whom Web-
ster made the comment, "He could read tolerably well, and
wrote a fair hand; but spelling was not his forte." 2

When the lad had learned his letters, he proceeded to borrow
every volume within his reach. His father had joined with
Thomas W. Thompson, the local attorney, and the Reverend
Thomas Worcester, the Salisbury clergyman, in starting a
circulating library, small but carefully selected, in which the
bookish Daniel found his chief delight. Long afterwards,
Webster sometimes astonished his legal companions by quoting
at length from the Essay on Man or Paradise Lost, or even
from Watts's hymns, most of which he could recite by the time
he was twelve. His guests at Marshfield used to hear him
singing in the early morning such stanzas as :

Our lives through various scenes are drawn,

And vexed with trifling cares ;
While thine eternal thoughts move on

Thine undisturbed affairs.

Almost unconsciously, he acquired a thorough knowledge
of the English classics, including such writers as Samuel Butler,
Addison, Swift, Pope, and Dr. Johnson. He was much affected
by the papers from the Spectator y particularly the essay on the
ballad of "Chevy Chase." Through this intensive reading

1 National Edition, XVII, 7. Webster's Autobiography is a fragment, written out
in i829^fbr Mrs. Eliza Buckrninster Lee, and extending only to 1817. Brief though
it is, it is of great value because of its recollections of his childhood.

^ 2 Another teacher was William Hoyt, who kept the general store in Salisbury Lower
Village. Still another was James Tappan, who lived to an advanced age, surviving
his famous pupiL Webster wrote him an interesting letter on July 20, 1852. (National
Edition, XVIII, 541.)

THE BACKGROUND 25

came a feeling for style and rhythm which had a beneficial
effect upon his speeches.

When the yearly almanac arrived, he and Ezekiel usually
memorized before nightfall the verses at the tops of the pages
devoted to the months. Once the two brothers, differing as
they lay in bed regarding the rendering of a line in April's
poetry, stole out in their nightshirts to the chamber where
their aged grandmother was sleeping and brought back the
precious pamphlet, only to discover that Ezekiel had won.
Just as he was dropping off to slumber again, Daniel noticed
a flickering light in the room which they had just visited, and
springing out of bed, found that flames were spreading from an
overturned candle. He shouted to arouse the family, and
Captain Webster, hastening to the rescue, seized everything
that was ablaze and wrapped it in blankets. It was a fortu-
nate escape from a disaster which would have been blamed on
an overscrupulous attention to accuracy of quotation. 1

Literature was even then an indispensable source of stimula-
tion to Daniel Webster. "We had so few books that to read
them once or twice was nothing," he wrote. "We thought
they were all to be got by heart." 2 But he was also a friendly
boy, who liked people, especially those of marked individuality.
He enjoyed talking with old John Bowen, who had been a
prisoner among the Indians, and with George Bayly, "a yeo-
man of humor and mimicry/' 3 who had seen the first tree
felled in northern New Hampshire. In a tiny cottage on a
corner of the Webster farm lived Robert Wise, a Yorkshire-
man who had survived a career of miraculous adventures as
soldier and sailor, who had been twice a deserter, and had at
last, after fighting under the Union Jack at Bunker Hill, joined
the colonists and served under Stark in later campaigns. 4 His

i National Edition, XVII, 8. 2 Ibid. 8 IMd., XVIII, 296.

*Ibid. y XVII, 16-17. Henry A. Wise, in his Seven Decades of the Union, 195-96,
tells of a conversation with Webster about Robert Wise, but the account is filled with
minor errors. It says that Webster's early home was " along the New Hampshire
coast," that the name of the old pensioner was Daniel Wise, and that he was a bachelor.
Webster, in his Autobiography, expressly states that Robert Wise had a wife, but
no child.

26 DANIEL WEBSTER

fantastic tales held the credulous, imaginative lad in a mes-
meric spell; and the veteran also took him as a companion
on his walks, paddled him up and down the river, and taught
him the art of angling. 1 An odd playmate he must have been,
and a diverting tutor. In return, Daniel read the newspapers
to him, for he could neither read nor write.

Although Daniel was fond of nature and could beat a path
through the woods with Wise for hours at a stretch, he had no
love for farm labor. In his sixty-fifth year, writing at the
spot where he had been brought up, he said :

This fair field is before me. I could see a lamb on any part of it.
I have ploughed it, and raked it, and hoed it; but I never mowed it.
Somehow, I could never learn enough to hang a scythe. I had not
wit enough. My brother Joe used to say that my father sent me to
college in order to make me equal to the rest of the children. 2

Something about him made an impression on strangers.
He often entertained guests at the tavern by reading aloud
from the Bible ; and teamsters, as they pulled up at the door,
would say, "Come, let's go in and hear a psalm from Dan
Webster/* Many years later, when Senator Webster had
just ended one of his political speeches, a man came up to him
and asked in amazement, "Is this the little black Dan that used
to water the horses?" His teacher, James Tappan, remem-
bered that Daniel "was always the brightest boy in school."
On a Saturday morning, Master Tappan held up a shining
new jackknife, promising it as a reward on Monday to the
pupil who would commit to memory the greatest number of
verses from the Bible. Many of the boys and girls did well,

1 Daniel's passion for fishing, if not instinctive, was at least created in him very
early. At the age of five, according to Lanman, the boy was riding on horseback with
his father along a road near his birthplace, when Captain Webster, passing near Punch
Brook, suddenly exclaimed, " Dan'l, how would you like to catch a trout ? " They
dismounted, and Ebenezer, cutting a hazel rod, attached to it a line and hook which
he had in his pocket, baited it with a worm captured under a stone, and then told the
youngster to creep up on a boulder and cast carefully into the deep pool below. The
little fellow, obeying instructions, hooked his fish, and then, in his excitement, lost his
balance and tumbled into the water, over his head. He was drawn out, still clutching
the improvised rod, with a good-sized trout trailing from the hook. (Lanman, p. 135.)

2 Webster to Blatchford, May 3, 1846 (National Edition, XVIII, 228).

THE BACKGROUND 27

for the prize was worth striving for; but Daniel had memorized
so many verses that, after he had repeated sixty or seventy,
the master stopped hirn^ leaving him to protest that there were
several chapters more which he could recite. At the sawmill
on Punch Brook, which Captain Webster still operated even
after he had moved to the Lower Village, Daniel was some-
times assigned the not very arduous task of setting the saw and
hoisting the gate ; and, during the few minutes while the blade
was grinding through the timber, he employed the time in read-
ing from the book which he never failed to carry in his pocket.

It was a household in which love of country was instilled
into the children with their daily food. At the tavern fireside,
Daniel listened to tales of the Revolution from men who were
familiar with the flash of rifles and who had seen Knox and
Steuben and Washington. Captain Webster must have told
stories of his campaigns under Rogers and of the debates in
the New Hampshire Convention of 1788. As Parton said,
Daniel learned political history at town meetings, on election
days, from the actors themselves not from the cold and unin-
viting pages of textbooks. And always before him was the
figure of George Washington, his father's hero, as the model of
what a patriot ought to be.

The three hundred dollars which Ebenezer Webster received,
after 1791, as annual compensation for his services as Lay
Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, was chiefly responsible
for his decision to give his youngest son an education. At the
close of the century he exchanged houses with his son-in-law,
William Haddock, 1 and moved to The Elms, a comfortable
dwelling still standing, with some additions, only a short dis-
tance from the site of the tavern. 2 It was this farm which

1 William Haddock (1769-1828) came to Salisbury from Haverhill, Massachusetts,
before 1794, being by trade a tanner and currier, as well as a shoemaker. For his first
wife, he married Daniel's sister, Abigail, and accumulated a small fortune, most of
which he later lost through poor investments. His son, Charles Brickett Haddock
(1796-1861), was Daniel's favorite nephew.

2 For a useful and accurate map of The Elms farm and its environment, see the
drawing by F. N. Hancock in Fisher's The True Daniel Webster > facing page 42. The
house is now occupied as the office and residence of the Superintendent of the New
Hampshire Orphans" Home.

28 DANIEL WEBSTER

Ebenezer Webster occupied until he died in 1806. It was then
taken over by his son, Ezekiel, at whose death in 1829 it was
bought by Daniel, who kept it mainly for raising cattle. But
at the time when Judge Webster transferred to The Elms,
Daniel was a student in Dartmouth College. It was the tavern
which was his boyhood home, and to which his recollections
invariably turned.

Certain events of his childhood were indelibly stamped on
Webster's mind. Struthers Burt has written :

No one knows the countryside,
Sweet and deep and amplified,
Until he 's watched it day by day.
Month by month from frost to hay.

This Captain Webster's sons had done. Daniel never forgot
how, when the Merrimack was teeming with fish in the spring,
the shad, on reaching the junction of the two streams which
form the larger river, went up the Winnepesaukee to the warmer
waters of the lake, while the salmon sought the colder Pemige-
wasset rushing down from the mountains. He vividly recalled
that during an April freshet a great barn went sailing down the
valley, swept along by the torrent. Writing of his affection
for New Hampshire, he said, "For my part, I shall continue
to love her white-topped hills, her clear running streams, her
beautiful lakes, and her deep shady forests, as long as I live." 1
More specifically he described The Elms as follows :

This house faces north. Its front windows look towards the River
Merrimack. But then the river soon turns to the south, so that the
eastern windows look toward the river also. But the river has so
deepened its channel, in this stretch of it, in the last fifty years, that
we cannot see its water without approaching it, or going back to the
higher lands behind us. ... Looking out at the east windows at
this moment (two P.M.), with a beautiful sun just breaking out, my
eye sweeps a rich and level plain of one hundred acres. At the end
of it, a third of a mile off, I see plain marble gravestones, designating
the places where repose my father, my mother, my brother Joseph,

1 Webster to Coffin, June n, 1840 (National Edition, XVIII, 86).

THE BACKGROUND 29

and my sisters Mehitable, Abigail, and Sarah, good scripture names,
inherited from their Puritan ancestors. 1

In almost the last letter which he wrote, Webster said to
Charles H. Warren: "But you never saw Salisbury, nor the
sources of the Merrimack, nor Kearsarge, nor the Ragged
Mountain, nor my Punch Brook Pasture, of 500 acres, where
100 cattle graze along the glades and glide through the bushes
like so many deer. My ! I do not think you ever saw any-
thing." His New Hampshire home was his solace to the end
of his days.

There was little of the prodigy about the youthful Web-
ster. Except for his physical weakness, which he later
entirely outgrew, he seems to have had a normal, healthy
childhood, free from morbid influences and without Freudian
complexes. His parents, although straitened in their resources,
were refined people, with a Puritan respect for learning and
law, and with rigid standards of conduct. The forces to which
Daniel was susceptible came from nature, from humanity,
and from books, and he profited by them all.

1 National Edition, XVIII, p. 228. The railroad and the attractive new brick
buildings of the New Hampshire Orphans* Home have considerably altered the view
which Webster described, but the little cemetery is still carefully kept. A bronze tablet
on a boulder commemorates the fact that the Superintendent's Residence or rather
one section of it was once the home of Daniel Webster's father and later of Daniel
himself. In 1925, a Daniel Webster Memorial Building was dedicated at the Orphans*
Homej with an address by Senator George H. Moses. In 1852, Webster wrote,
" There are seven houses in the village, of which two are mine, one for our use and
one for the tenants." Both the houses which he mentions are still standing, but the
old tavern has long since disappeared, and its site is unmarked.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH

The duty of man to his Maker, to his fellow-men, and to himself have
ever been here inculcated.

WEBSTER, Address at the Abbot Festival, Exeter,

August 23, 1838

It is doubtful if the name of any educational institution in the land is so
Inseparably blended with the name of a graduate, or even of a founder, as
is the name of Dartmouth with that of Daniel Webster.

PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. TUCKER, Address at the Webster
Centennial of Dartmouth College, September 25, 1901

ONCE, in the broad meadow at The Elms, "Dan'l" Webster
was set to mowing by his father, but made awkward work of
it. His wayward scythe was sometimes on the ground and
sometimes over the tops of the grass never where it should
have been if it had been swung by competent hands. When
he complained that the tool was not properly balanced, un-
successful efforts were made to adjust it. At last the vexed
Captain Webster cried, "Well, hang it to suit yourself/*
Quickly the boy threw it over the limb of a tree, saying, '* There,
that *s just right." The father, laughing in spite of his irrita-
tion, told him to let it remain where it was.

But Daniel might have been obliged to settle down as a
farmer if his alertness of mind had not attracted the notice
of a man who had the inclination and the power to help him.
Thomas W. Thompson, 1 an intimate friend of the Webster

1 Thomas White Thompson (1766-1821), born in Boston, early moved with his
parents to Newburyport, attended Dummer Academy, and graduated from Harvard
College in 1786. With notable versatility, he studied theology, acted as a tutor at
Harvard, and read law under Theophilus Parsons. What drew him to New Hampshire
is not known, but he opened an office in 1791 at Salisbury Center, and moved in the
following year to the Lower Village, where he became the leading citizen. He was
later Member of Congress (1805-07), and, after removing to Concord in 1809, was
State Treasurer (1810), Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 31

family, maintained a law office near the tavern; and, when
Daniel was not more than thirteen, the attorney, lacking a
clerk, hired the lad to sit at his desk while he was away on
business and explain to prospective clients where he had gone.
The duties of the position were so slight that the boy investi-
gated the books on the shelves around him, and, when Thomp-
son casually tossed him a Latin grammar, Daniel, hoping to
please his employer, committed it to memory. This feat so
stirred Thompson's interest that he suggested to Captain
Webster the wisdom of encouraging the youngster by sending
him to an academy, with the idea of preparing him to be a
teacher. Ebenezer Webster, neither then nor later, had any
superfluous funds. On the other hand, Daniel's physical
deficiencies seemed to indicate that he could never earn a living
by manual labor. The only alternative was to equip him
with as much schooling as the family finances would allow.
Consciousness of this fact, joined with pride in the impression
which his son had made on Lawyer Thompson, led Captain
Webster to come to a definite decision. The announcement
of his plan, so important to Daniel's development, was made
under circumstances best told in the latter's own words:

Of a hot day in July, it must have been in one of the last years of
Washington's administration, I was making hay with my father, just
where I now see a remaining elm tree. About the middle of the after-
noon, the Honorable Abiel Foster, M. C, who lived in Canterbury,
six miles off, called at the house, and came into the field to see my
father. He was a worthy man, college learned, and had been a minis-
ter, but was not a person of any considerable natural power. My
father was his friend and supporter. He talked awhile in the field,
and went on his way. When he was gone, my father called me to
him, and we sat down beneath the elm, on a haycock. He said,
"My son, that is a worthy man, he is a member of Congress, he goes
to Philadelphia, and gets six dollars a day, while I toil here. It is

(1812-14), and United States Senator (1814-17). He was elected a trustee of Dart-
mouth College in 1801. Thompson was described as "an accomplished gentleman,
distinguished for the dignity and urbanity of his manners, for integrity and piety/*
His political career served as a stimulus to Daniel Webster, who admired and respected
him, and was influenced by his unadulterated Federalism.

32 DANIEL WEBSTER

because he had an education, which I never had. If I had had his
eaxly education, I should have been in Philadelphia in his place. I
came near it as it was. But I missed it, and now I must work here."
"My dear father/' said I, "you shall not work. Brother and I will
work for you, and wear our hands out, and you shall rest." And I
remember to have cried and I cry now at the recollection. "My
child," said he, "it is of no importance to me. I now live but for
my children. I could not give your elder brothers the advantage of
knowledge, but I can do something for you. Exert yourself, improve
your opportunities, and when I am gone, you will not need to go
through the hardships which I have undergone, and which have made
me old before my time." *

The pathos of this incident is heightened for us by the fact
that, only seventeen years later, Daniel Webster was elected
to Congress from New Hampshire, attaining with little effort
the office which Captain Webster had struggled vainly to se-
cure. This conversation in the hayfield opened an unexpected
future to the barefooted country lad. Before that date no
one among the American Websters had been in any sense a
scholar. Gaining a precarious livelihood by tilling the soil,
they had belonged to the yeoman class. Daniel and his
brother, Ezekiel, were the first to become "learned'* men.

The plan upon which Captain Webster had resolved was
put into operation the following spring. On May 25, 1796, he
lifted the youngster on a horse with a side saddle and, mount-
ing his own steed, started with him for Exeter, one of the most
important New Hampshire villages and the seat of the Phillips
Exeter Academy. The route was familiar to him, for Exeter
had been the capital of the state, which he had often visited
on legislative business. The travelers stopped for the night
at Allenstown, continued their journey on the next day as far
as Poplin, and reached their destination early on the following
morning. 2

The Phillips Exeter Academy, now one of our greatest pre-
paratory schools, comparable with Eton and Harrow in

1 National Edition, XVIII, 228-29, Letter to Blatchford, May 3, 1846.
8 Lyman,I, 203.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 33

England, had then been in operation about thirteen years. 1
Founded mainly through the liberal endowments of Dr. John
Phillips, it had been incorporated in 1781, and opened to pupils
two years later. Its first Principal, William Woodbridge, had
been succeeded by Benjamin Abbot/ one of the most brilliant
of American teachers, who governed the school for half a
century, leaving it "famous for scholarship and the devotion
of its graduates to church and state." 3

The first small school building was soon outgrown, and a
new and beautiful main hall, on Front Street, was completed
just before Webster's arrival. In 1796, the enrollment was
not far from ninety, of whom about half were from New
Hampshire. In Webster's day 3 Dr. Abbot had only one assist-
ant, usually a young and inexperienced man who remained
for but a year.

Father and son rode down the shaded street of the country
village, the boy on the bony horse, in clumsy cowhide shoes
and a homespun suit too tight for him. According to tradi-
tion, 4 Captain Webster took the lad to Dr. Abbot to arrange
for his admission. The Principal, in his pompous manner,
donned his cocked hat and said, "Let the young gentleman
be presented for examination/' After making the conven-
tional inquiries, he handed him a Bible and asked him to read
aloud the twenty-second chapter of Luke, describing the be-
trayal of Jesus by Judas and the denial by Peter. This was
an easy task for the boy who had so often declaimed the Psalms

1 It was almost inevitable that Captain Webster should turn to Exeter for the
education of his son. He himself had been born at Kingston, only six miles away, and
he had known Exeter as a boy. As for the school, it was then, as it is to-day, the best
in New Hampshire, its only rival in New England being the slightly older Phillips
Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, established also by the Phillips family.

2 Benjamin Abbot (1762-1849), a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover, and
Harvard (1788), spent all his mature life at Exeter. He believed that the burden in
education must be placed squarely upon the undergraduate, and he was a thorough
drillmaster. His discipline was strict, but just, and he pursued a firm policy as Prin-
cipal In his character he represented the Puritan virtues of industry, honesty, and
idealism.

3 Quoted from The Phillips Exeter Academy: A History , by Laurence M. Crosbie,
a thorough and readable study of the development of the school. It has an admirable
chapter No, VIII on "Abbot's Favorite Pupil: Daniel Webster."

4 Lyman, I, 204-5.

34 DANIEL WEBSTER

in Ms father's tavern, and he went unfalteringly to the close
of the rhythmical passage. He closed the book and stood
silent. Then Dr. Abbot, taking the volume from his hand,
said simply, "Young man, you are qualified to enter this
institution."

At that moment, however, Daniel Webster did not look
like a promising candidate for greatness. The diffident
farmer's son, who had never before been away from home, was
thrown without warning into strange surroundings, among
lads from the cities, much better dressed than he and far more
sophisticated. While waiting for the meal to be served in his
boarding house, he at first sat at the table with his knife and
fork held upright on either side of his plate ; and his father is
reported to have said, "Daniel knows no more about holding
a knife and fork than a cow does about holding a spade."
Squire Clifford, in whose house Daniel roomed and boarded,
saw the boy's embarrassment and, realizing his shyness,
induced another student to sacrifice himself for the benefit of
Daniel. At the next meal, the victim deliberately held his
utensils aloft with his fists planted on the table as Daniel had
been doing. Squire Clifford then reproved him, and the
scapegoat, controlling his laughter only with difficulty, thanked
his mentor and accepted the rebuke. Daniel did not miss
the hint, and his manners steadily improved. 1 Other vague
tales of Webster's uncouthness have undoubtedly some basis
in fact, but he was quick to learn and soon took on the color
of his environment, as boys have a way of doing.

Squire Clifford's residence known to-day as the Garrison
House had been built in 1658 as a protection against the
Indians, and is still standing in excellent condition at the cor-
ner of Water and Clifford Streets, near the "white bridge."
Webster's study table, a hinged board which folded against the
wall when not required, is shown to visitors.

The routine did not allow the students much leisure. Morn-
ing prayers were held at seven-thirty every day in Dr. Abbot's

* Cunningham, Familiar Sketches of the Phillips Exeter Academy, pp. 130-32. See
also Crosbie, p. 80.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 35

room, which was plain and bare, with rows of unpainted pine
desks and a gigantic cast-iron stove, the heat from which was
augmented on cold winter days by the blaze from the logs in
the huge fireplace. There was no artificial light except from
candles, and it was often so dark that printed letters could
hardly be made out. The woodwork everywhere, on desks
and walls and railings, was scarred by jackknives, and Webster
himself was later to cut a rude "D. W." deep into a panel in
the bell tower. The pupils studied and recited from eight
until ten, and then, after a recess of twenty minutes, continued
at their books until twelve. The afternoon sessions lasted
from three to six in summer and from two to five in winter.
Each boy was compelled to be in his room at seven o'clock in
the evening and had to go to bed at nine. Wednesday and
Saturday afternoons were half-holidays.

Because Webster had appeared in the middle of the academic
year, the Principal assigned him to the lowest class, where, for
a few weeks, he covered familiar ground in English grammar,
writing, and arithmetic. Accustomed as he was to the in-
efficient teachers in the district schools of Salisbury, he had to
adjust himself to instructors who knew their business. But
at the end of a month, the Principal's assistant, Nicholas
Emery, afterwards a lawyer and judge in Portland, Maine,
placed him at the head of the section. When the term
closed, Emery, having ascertained by questioning Webster
that the lad might not return, urged him to come back, promis-
ing that he should be promoted to a higher class where he
could advance more rapidly. " Those were the first truly
encouraging words that I ever received with regard to my
studies," said Webster later. "I then resolved to return,
and pursue them with diligence, and as much ability as I
possessed."

Webster had not been altogether happy at the school. His
unfashionable garb and awkward manners had excited the
derision of some of his mates. The fourteen-year-old lad had
not yet outgrown the sensitiveness which had been the conse-
quence or the accompaniment of his physical weakness.

36 DANIEL WEBSTER

Emery's sympathy filled the boy with a new confidence and
induced him to persevere at Exeter a little longer.

On his return in October, Daniel began Latin and public
speaking under the precocious Joseph Stevens Buckminster,
who, although only in his thirteenth year/ was already a Senior
at Exeter and was taking Dr. Abbot's place while the latter
was recovering from an indisposition. That a child like Buck-
minster should have charge of instruction in Latin at Exeter
may well seem remarkable to present-day students of that
institution, but the prodigy was apparently quite equal to the
responsibility. Under his guidance, Webster made rapid
progress in Latin, and he always regarded his tutor with kind-
ness. It is impossible to ascertain the length of time during
which Webster was actually taught by Dr. Abbot, but he must
have sat under him, for the Principal later said :

It was generally believed that Webster was a dull and unsuccessful
pupil, but such was not the case. His mind rarely seemed to
be occupied with his studies. His large, lustrous, thoughtful eyes
were gazing about the room, or looking out of the window ; but, at
recitation, the pupil who appeared not to be engaged in studious
preparation always acquitted himself well.

Webster's only conspicuous failure was in declamation, then
an important feature of the curriculum. In the public exhibi-
tion held each week, every student was supposed to take part,
but the boy who was to become America's most famous orator
could not overcome his timidity. His own confession tells
the story :

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.

1 The stories of Buckminster's precocity would seem mythical if they were not so
well authenticated. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on May 26, 1784,
and was thus more than two years and five months younger than Webster. He had
read the Greek Testament when he was only five, and, in 1796, was a tall and dignified
youth, who seemed much older than he was. He later graduated from Harvard at
sixteen, became a clergyman, was appointed Lecturer in Biblical Criticism at Harvard,
and died of epilepsy on June 9, 1812.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 37

Sometimes the instructors frowned, sometimes they smiled. Mr.
Buckminster always pressed and entreated, most winningly, that I
would venture, but I could never command sufficient resolution. 1

Doubtless much of Webster's embarrassment arose from a
dread of further ridicule from his fellows, but there may have
been an actual physical inhibition based upon a nervous weak-
ness. It was, at any rate, merely a temporary difficulty, which
completely disappeared when he reached college.

Little beyond these meagre details can be learned regarding
Webster's brief career at Exeter. The records of his marks
in his various studies have long since disappeared. His stay
was too short for the formation of many enduring friendships,
but among those with whom he was best acquainted were
Lewis Cass, 2 later Governor of Michigan, Minister to France,
Secretary of State, and candidate for the Presidency ; J. W.
Brackett, of New York City ; William Garland, of Portsmouth ;
James Hervey Bingham, 3 with whom he was to continue his
intimacy at Dartmouth ; and Leverett Saltonstall, of Salem,
afterwards a noted lawyer and member of Congress. In later
life he was thrown into close relations with other Exeter gradu-
ates, including Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, and George
Bancroft.

On one occasion he walked with a companion to Rye Beach,
ten miles away, and there, just before the sun was setting, had
a view of the ocean. "I remember distinctly the impression
made upon me at that time," he said, "a sensation such as has
never since come to me, much as I have looked at, and love to
look at, the sea/' 4 There he went again in 1845, towards the
close of his life, to gaze once more at the Atlantic from the
point where his eyes had seen it as a boy.

1 National Edition, XVII, 10.

2 Webster remembered Cass as " a clever fellow, good-natured, kind-hearted, ami-
able, and obliging."

3 Bingham later said of Webster as he remembered him at Exeter: " He had an
independent air and was rather careless in his dress and appearance. He did not join
much in the plays and amusements of the boys of his age, but paid close attention to
his studies." See National Edition, XVII, 55.

4 Harvey, p. 346.

38 DANIEL WEBSTER

Webster may not have made a deep impression at Exeter as
a leader, but the time came when he was welcomed back as his
Alma Mater's favorite son* He was elected a Trustee in 1835,
and remained nominally a member of the Board until his death,
although he was recorded as being present at only two meet-
ings one in 1 836 and another in 1 838. At the Abbot Festival
in 18385 he presided and delivered an eloquent address, at the
close of which he said, in presenting a silver pitcher, the gift
of the alumni, to the Principal, "Some men have wrought on
brass, some men have wrought on marble, but Abbot wrought
on mind/* The applause at the conclusion of this sentence
was described by one of the guests as "like a sudden peal of
thunder.** l It was the orator's sincere tribute to a great
teacher of young men.

There is little remaining to-day of the Exeter which Daniel
Webster knew, but he is still remembered there. His portrait
hangs in the Academy Auditorium; the marble mantel over
the fireplace In the lecture hall was taken from Webster's law
office in Boston ; and one of the newest dormitories bears his
name. The school still maintains its ancient traditions of
liberality and democracy, and continues to offer an exceptional
opportunity for boys of the Webster type.

In June 1834, Webster sent his youngest son, Edward, to
Exeter, and afterwards wrote him an excellent letter of advice,
which has been preserved. 2 Only four months before his own
death, he wrote, on June 7, 1852, to the Golden Branch literary
society, of which he had been made an honorary member,
enclosing copies of a speech which he had recently delivered in
New York, and ending :

My Brothers ! let us do honor to the Founder of our academy !
Let us cherish, affectionately, the memory of the venerable and
beloved Benjamin Abbot ! And let us labor to repay to the cause of

1 Quoted by Crosbie from an article by " G. O.," in the Boston Advertiser of July 20,
1881. For a good account of the Abbot Festival, see Crosbie, pp. 70-72.

2 Crosbie, p. 85. See Van Tyne, Letters of Daniel Webster > p. 587, for a letter from
Webster to his son, Fletcher, asking the latter to take his brother to Exeter and enroll
him in the Academy.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 39

Learning, what a most excellent Institution for Learning has done for
us. My Brothers, Farewell I l

This was his last communication to the school.

At the close of the fall term, in December 1796, Captain
Webster came for his son and took him back to Salisbury. The
reasons why the boy did not return to complete his course can
only be surmised. The legend, perpetuated by undergraduate
tradition, that he was dismissed by the authorities has no
foundation. The suggestion that his health had been impaired
is not supported by the evidence. It is more likely that the
expense of maintaining the lad away from home was becoming
a strain upon the father's financial resources. 2 For the moment
there was some uncertainty as to what it would be best for him
to do. On his fifteenth birthday, he was teaching a district
school, composed of both girls and boys, many of them
older than he 5 in a room in the farmhouse of his uncle,
William Webster, on the eastern slope of Searle's Hill. He
must have been a strange pedagogue, this youth with the
gleaming eyes, whose only experience with the world outside
of Salisbury had been nine months at Exeter. But he had in
his boyish head more sound knowledge of the three R's than
any of his own early instructors could have claimed. When
school hours were over, he was the companion of his pupils
at "apple peelings" and "straw rides" and other rural diver-
sions. 3

It was probably the Reverend Samuel Wood, 4 of Boscawen,
who rescued Daniel Webster from a career as a schoolmaster.

1 Crosbie, p. 87.

2 This view was accepted by the late Professor Herbert D. Foster, of Dartmouth
College, who had accumulated a large amount of material on Webster, and was ex-
pressed by him in a letter to Laurence M. Crosbie, March n, 1926.

3 Lyman, I, 212-13.

4 Samuel Wood (1752-1836) was a man of wide influence in the Merrimack Valley.
Graduating from Dartmouth in 1779, as Valedictorian of his class, he had settled in
Boscawen, six miles southeast of Salisbury, in 1781, where he was a clergyman for
almost fifty years. His house still stands on the road between Salisbury Center and
Boscawen, about two miles west from the Merrimack River and Boscawen Plain, on a
hill commanding a broad view over the valley. Here, with characteristic enterprise,
he planted a large orchard of choice fruit trees, and undertook also the cultivation of
the silkworm, with no great success. Under his tutelage, more than a hundred young
men were prepared for college, many of them gratuitously.

4 o DANIEL WEBSTER

Having been thrown into contact with the boyish teacher, he
was struck by his ability and ambition, and, going to Captain
Webster, offered to prepare Daniel for Dartmouth College.
The generous proposal could not be rejected. The necessary
arrangements were completed, and, as the father and son
drove in a "cutter" to Boscawen, the former revealed to the
boy his plan to give him a college education. In recollecting
that dramatic moment, Daniel afterwards wrote :

He said he then lived but for his children, and if I would do all I
could for myself, he would do what he could for me. I remember
that I was quite overcome, and my head grew dizzy. The thing
appeared to me so high, and the expense and sacrifice it was to cost
my father, so great, that I could only press his hands and shed tears.
Excellent, excellent parent ! I cannot think of him, even now, with-
out turning child again. 1

From February to August 1797 Dr. Wood did his best to
get Daniel ready to meet the Dartmouth entrance require-
ments. The task was both congenial and familiar, but was
made unusually difficult by the necessity of covering so much
work in such a short time. Although the boy knew only a little
Latin grammar. Dr. Wood set him at once to reading Virgil
and Cicero. "I conceived a pleasure in the study of them,
especially the latter, which rendered application no longer a
task/' he wrote in his Autobiography. 2 With the coming of
spring, he took up Greek grammar under David Palmer, a
young Dartmouth Senior who happened to be staying with
Dr. Wood. For Greek he had no great fondness, but he was
diligent, and, after he had been working only six weeks, Dr.
Wood urged him to try to enter college at the opening of the
regular fall term. It is not astonishing that he went to Han-
over, according to his own confession, " miserably prepared,
both in Latin and Greek." 3 He was not yet sixteen, and the

1 National Edition, XVII, 10. It is interesting to notice how much Webster's
career was affected by external forces. He was, no doubt, eager to secure an education,
but the stimulus seems to have come first from Thomas W. Thompson and then from
Dr. Wood. It was unquestionably their advice which persuaded Captain Webster to
send his son away from home for an education.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 4 i

only systematic instruction which he had received had been
at Exeter and at Boscawen, in each case for a short period.

He had never outgrown his aversion to farm labor. During
the haying season, Captain Webster, in need of hands, sent for
him to come back and help in the fields. Finding the turning
over of the hay to be a lonely and dull process, the boy inveigled
his younger sister, Sally, into wandering off with him to pick
whortleberries. They rode away on horseback together and
did not return to the tavern until sundown reminded them
of supper. When Captain Webster, who had been away at a
neighboring village on business, returned and, through question-
ing, found out what had happened, he could not hold back his
laughter; and on the following morning after breakfast he
quietly handed his son a compact bundle containing the clothes
which the latter had brought from Boscawen. "I believe,"
said Ebenezer Webster, with a grim smile, "that you may as
well go back to Dr. Wood's/* So Daniel was destined to use
his brain instead of his muscles. 1

In Boscawen he found various forms of diversion, both
intellectual and physical. The picturesque village, with a
population recorded in the Selectmen's books for 1786 as "827
soles/' was a centre for the surrounding agricultural community,
and the farmers drove in frequently for business and gossip.
In the Boscawen Social Library, Webster discovered about
two hundred books, classified as theological, historical, and
miscellaneous, the group including, besides the poems of Milton,
Pope, Thomson, and Cowper, The Fool of Quality y Letters on
Courtship, Coquette, and Arabian Nights 9 Entertainments, in
lighter vein. Here it was that he first turned the enchanting
pages of Don Quixote, of which he later said :

I began to read it, and it is literally true that I never closed my eyes
till I had finished it ; nor did I lay it down for five minutes, so great

was the power of that extraordinary book upon my imagination. 2

1 The story is told in Lanman, p. 28, and in various other sources. As the boy left
the tavern that morning, his patron, Thomas W. Thompson, saw him with his bundle
and asked, " Where are you going, Dan ? " " Back to school," was the rather shame-
faced answer. " I thought it would be so," said Thompson, with a quiet laugh.

2 National Edition, XVII, n.

4 a DANIEL WEBSTER

But he did not spend all his time in reading. He was fond
of fishing along Mill Brook and of hunting in the dense forest
which could be reached quickly in almost any direction from
the Wood farm. There was about him nothing of the recluse
or thin-blooded scholar, and his physical vitality was increas-
ing day by day, Once, in an introspective mood, he confessed
his divided allegiance :

I must do myself the justice to say that, in those boyish days,
there were two things I did dearly love, viz.: reading and playing;
pastimes which did not cease to struggle, when boyhood was over
(have they yet, altogether ?) and in regard to which neither the cita
mars nor the victoria laeta could be said of either. 1

Neither Ebenezer Webster nor his son had thought of any
college except Dartmouth. It was then the only higher
institution of learning in New Hampshire; and Captain
Webster had been, in 1789, Chairman of the Legislative Com-
mittee which had recommended the Dartmouth College Grant
of forty-two thousand acres in the northern part of the state.
Dr. Wood was a graduate, although not as has sometimes
been erroneously asserted a Trustee. It had the advantage
of being easily accessible, for shortly after the Revolution the
College Road, four rods broad, had been laid out by surveyors
from Boscawen to Hanover, connecting the Merrimack with
the Connecticut. The route was through Salisbury, Andover,
Wilmot, Springfield, Enfield, and Lebanon. It was along
this rutted highway, past the rugged slopes of Mount Cardigan
and Mascoma Lake, that Daniel Webster, on horseback,

1 Among the many legends of Webster's mental energy when aroused is one often
related by himself, of the occasion when Dr. Wood, noticing how much time the lad
was spending in play, suggested that his example might be bad for the other boys.
Daniel, sensitive to the suggestion that he was not doing his duty, sat up all that night
studying. On the next morning, he construed his assigned one hundred lines without a
mistake. Dr. Wood was about to leave s but Daniel requested him to listen to a few
more pages. The boy continued, while Dr. Wood sat, impatient for breakfast, which
had been announced. Finally the master asked his pupil how much farther he could
go. " To the end of the twelfth book of the JEneid! " was the confident answer. This
story is told in Lyman, I, 218-19. Doubtless many of the stories of this sort are
apocryphal, the product of a lively imagination engaged in retrospection : but Webster,
as youth and man, was capable, under stress, of accomplishing an amazing amount of
work in a brief period.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 43

carrying with him his feather bed and bedding, together with a
few books, some clothes, and provisions for the journey, rode 5
like D'Artagnan, to seek his fortune. He was now only fifteen
years and six months old, but he had matured rapidly at Exeter
and Boscawen, and diffidence was no longer one of his handicaps.

On his arrival in Hanover, he fell into the friendly hands
of Roswell Shurtleff, 1 then a Junior in the College, who directed
him to Ford's Tavern, on the north side of the Green a
building which was afterwards the residence of Squire Mills
Olcott and later known as Choate House. 2 Here Webster,
with other prospective Freshmen, brushed his clothes and
made ready for the entrance examinations. 3 He had to appear
in succession before various members of the faculty, then
called the "executive authority," to be tested in Greek,
Latin, English, and arithmetic; and, despite the fact that
his knowledge of the classics was, according to Shurtleff, "just
to the limit prescribed by law at that period/' he was duly
admitted, with Dr. Wood's letter of recommendation to sup-
port him.

Webster was also obliged to furnish evidence of "good moral
character" and to provide a bond of two hundred dollars for
the payment of his college bills. When these routine require-
ments had been met, he doubtless called on President John
Wheelock, at the Mansion House, now the Howe Library,

1 Roswell Shurtleff (1773-1861), a brilliant student who was much older than his
classmates, graduated in 1799 from Dartmouth, and later returned to Hanover as Tutor,
Phillips Professor of Theology, Minister of the College Church, Librarian, and Professor
of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy. His reminiscences of Webster were used
freely by the latter's early biographers.

2 The house has recently been moved and now stands in a new location on the east
side of North Main Street.

3 According to a story preserved by Lyman, I, 21920, Daniel left Salisbury dressed
in a new suit of blue clothes, including coat, vest, and pantaloons. On his way, just
before reaching Hanover, he passed through a violent storm, which drenched him to the
skin. When he dismounted at Ford's Tavern, he found that the water had started
the color of his suit and that he was " as blue as an indigo-bag." He was called before
the faculty without having time to get new attire, and appeared in their presence, as
he said, " not only black Dan, but blue Dan." When he related his mishaps, however,
he stimulated their sympathy, and his sad plight may have helped to gam him admis-
sion. This picturesque tale has no other authority than that of Lyman, whose inac-
curacies in other respects make it exceedingly questionable.

44 DANIEL WEBSTER

which then occupied the present site of Reed Hall, and was
there formally welcomed to the college. He was enrolled in
classes which were probably studying the jEneid y Cicero's
Ora/ions, the Greek Testament, arithmetic, English grammar,
rhetoric, composition, and public speaking a course which,
in difficulty and variety, corresponds rather closely to that of
the next to the highest year in any of our standard prepara-
tory schools to-day.

Dartmouth College, founded in 1769 through the initiative
of Eleazar Wheelock, who became its first President, was still,
at the close of the eighteenth century, a "small college," from
our present point of view ; but it had an average enrollment
of a hundred and forty undergraduates, and between 1790 and
1800 its normal graduating class of thirty-six was larger than
that of any of its rivals except Harvard. The President, John
Wheelock, 1 son of the founder, was a stiff and formal person-
age, with whom none of the students felt on easy terms. With-
out any marked intellectual ability or breadth of vision, he
had a prodigious store of energy which was often released in
ways unfortunate for the college. There were four teachers
of professorial rank: Bezaleel Woodward, an unpretentious,
friendly person, the sanest and most respected member of the
staff, whose field was mathematics and natural philosophy,
but who was a collegiate Pooh-Bah; John Smith, known as
"Professor Johnny/' who taught the languages, and who was
so nervous and timid that he was frequently completely dis-
concerted in the classroom; Nathan Smith, of the Medical
School, who offered instruction in chemistry, anatomy and
surgery, and the practice of physic ; and the President himself,
who lectured on Civil and Ecclesiastical History and assumed
entire charge of the work of the Senior year. To supplement
these there were tutors, young men not long out of college, who
were dallying with teaching: John Noyes, later a Congress-

1 Jolin Wheelock (1754-1817), born at Lebanon, Connecticut, graduated at Dart-
mouth in 1771, as a member of its first class, became a tutor, served as Lieutenant-
Colonel in the Revolutionary Army, and, in 1779, at the death of his father, succeeded
him through a process of scholastic nepotism. He was deprived of his office by the
Trustees in 1815, and died two years later.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 45

man; Stephen Bemis, afterwards a clergyman in Harvard,
Massachusetts; and Roswell Shurtleff, who has already been
mentioned. All of them were graduates of Dartmouth, and
no one of them except Shurtleff remained permanently on the
faculty.

The college and the village bore only a slight resemblance to
those of to-day. It would, indeed, be difficult to imagine a
more striking contrast than that between the Hanover Green
of 1797, cut out of a grove of stately pines and bordered with
unpretentious residences, and the noble array of brick build-
ings which now provide for Dartmouth undergraduates every
facility which the scholarly life can require. The college was
then compact, occupying the low ridge on the east side of the
Common. The central structure was Dartmouth Hall, con-
taining not only thirty-six rooms for students, but also quarters
for the library and for " philosophical apparatus." It was
burned down in 1904, but was almost immediately restored, in
brick and stone, on its old location. Directly to the south of
Dartmouth Hall stood the Chapel, which dated from 1790,
but which was removed in 1828. The Commons Hall., a long,
plain wooden structure, had been erected in 1791, on the site
now covered in part by Rollins Chapel ; but it was not in actual
use in Webster's time. 1 The only landmark with which
Webster was acquainted is the Meetinghouse, which was built
in 1795 on the northeast corner of the square, and which, some-
what restored and remodeled, remains one of the loveliest of
New England churches. The historic Burying Ground near
the Connecticut, with its simple headstones beneath the pines,
preserves the continuity between the past and the present,
linking the ancient and the modern Dartmouth as nothing
else could do.

Eminent authorities at the college have disagreed with
regard to the quarters occupied by Webster while he was at
Dartmouth. Professor Charles F. Richardson, in his address

1 Memorandum from Professor Leon B. Richardson, of Dartmouth, to the author,
December 20, 1929. Professor Richardson is an authority on Dartmouth College
history.

4 6 DANIEL WEBSTER

delivered at the Webster Centennial in 1901, stated positively
that Webster lived during his Freshman and Sophomore years
in the house of Humphrey Farrar, on South Main Street,
citing as evidence a letter written on November 25, 1852, by
George Farrar to Professor Edwin D. Sanborn. 1 A portion
at least of this original dwelling is still standing, and the owners
have marked it with a tablet. Professor Richardson was
certain also that Webster, as a Senior, had a room in Dart-
mouth Hall.

On the other hand, the late Professor Herbert D. Foster,
who gave the whole question the most searching scrutiny,
asserted that, according to the Treasurer's books, Webster
roomed in a college dormitory for the first three years of his
course, and, as a Senior, moved to a suite outside of college,
probably in what is to-day known as Webster Cottage. 2 A
letter from Webster to Bingham, headed "Beechnut Hall,
December 28, i8oo," 3 seems to indicate that as a Senior
he was then living in a private home, and Professor Foster
declared that the proof "rests not merely upon unbroken and
uncontradicted traditions, but upon the contemporary record
of the careful William Dewey, repeated within the house itself
to another cautious witness, Miss McMurphy, and written
down by her later/' This residence was built about 1780,
by Sylvanus Ripley, husband of Abigail Wheelock, President

1 National Edition, XVII, 53. Farrar's exact words were, " Mr. Webster, Freeborn
Adams, my brother William and myself, roomed at my father's house, during the first
two years of his college course." It must be kept in mind, however, that this was
written considerably more than half a century after the event. Edwin David Sanborn
(1801-85), who graduated at Dartmouth in 1832, was long a professor at that college.
In 1837, he married Mary Webster, daughter of Daniel's brother, Ezekiel. He was the
author of a Eulogy on Webster (1853) and a History of New Hampshire (1875), an d was
recognized as an authority on Daniel Webster.

2 See " Webster and Choate in College," by Herbert D. Foster, published in the
Dartmouth Alumni Magazine for April and May 1927. These two articles are a mine of
interesting information regarding Webster's college days. The Webster Cottage
formerly occupied the southwest corner of North Main Street and Webster Avenue, but
has lately, in the peripatetic fashion of so many Hanover dwellings, been moved to a new
site across the street. There is a charming article in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
for January 1929, by Alice Van Leer Carrick, illustrated with excellent photographs of
the old house in the process of removal. Mrs. Carrick, a well-known author and
antiquarian, has made the place famous under the name of " Next-to-Nothing House."

5 National Edition, XVII, 84.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 47

John Wheelock's sister; and Mrs. Ripley, then a widow,
occupied the house during the period when Webster is said to
have roomed there. The problem is entangled with rumor
and belated reminiscences. 1

The expense of education in that day was moderate as com-
pared with that of our time, and undergraduates apparently
had no difficulty in securing credit, even with the college
authorities. Professor Foster estimated that Webster incurred
a total bill of $88.34, which included three years of room rent,
four years of tuition, interest, incidentals, and Commencement
tax. His room rent averaged $4.09 annually. For twenty-
five months Webster made no settlement with Professor
Woodward, the Treasurer. In his Junior year, he paid him
$18.40, earned by teaching school at six dollars a month, in
Salisbury. 2 In view of his later propensities, it is significant
to find him borrowing $26.99 fr m Richard Lang, the village
storekeeper, who had a little square shop near where Webster
Hall now stands. His account at Lang's, recently brought to
light by Professor Foster, shows that he purchased a candle-
stick (3/4), with snuffers (2/6), ink-powder (9^.), a hundred
quill pens, a "Salmbook (4/6)," and "best laced clock'd cotton
hose (15/6)," which must have been an improvement on the
stockings which he had worn at the tavern. But even allowing
for extravagances not disclosed, it is not easy to see how Daniel
could have been then a very heavy burden upon his father,
except by depriving him of his assistance on the farm.

Although he was growing more robust, he was still thin-faced,
with prominent cheek-bones, and storm-tossed eyes "peering
out under dark overhanging brows." So swarthy was he in
complexion that the Deweys took him for an Indian as he
walked down the aisle on the first Sunday in the College Church,
and he was soon given the nickname of "Black Dan." He
was interested in politics, and enjoyed fishing, swimming,

1 Professor Foster's conclusions are confirmed by the more recent Investigations of
Professor Leon B. Richardson.

2 Webster apparently paid all his bills to the college in full before leaving Hanover
in 1801, making a final payment of $5.94 on August 24 to balance his account.

48 DANIEL WEBSTER

riding, and hunting, although not considered a good shot.
"The store accounts and letters/* says Professor Foster,
"reveal a frank, warm-hearted, sunny, lovable boy, fond of
books and friends/' When Aaron Loveland, his roommate,
brought him to his home in Orford, the grandmother in the
Loveland household complained because Daniel put his feet
upon the soft soapstone around the fireplace and scratched it.
"He was sometimes humorous, always companionable and
pleasant, wrote one of his acquaintances. But there is
evidence also that he was rather awkward in his bearing, and
Loveland said that he was not very popular with the class,
owing to his being "so independent and assuming." His
closest friend, James BL Bingham, had to confess that Webster
was "not intimate with many." But in spite of the fact that
"he was, and felt himself to be, a king or oracle," he was rec-
ognized as the ablest man in college, and even those who dis-
liked his "unbounded self-confidence" were forced to admit
that he was distinguished for the extent and readiness of his
knowledge and that his obvious ambition was justified by his
ability. He seems to have been free from vices. In a day
when everybody, including clergymen and the "best people"
generally, consumed considerable quantities of alcoholic bever-
ages, Webster bought and drank them in moderation. Al-
though he refers occasionally in his letters to girls of the
neighborhood, his philandering was of an innocuous type, and
he had no serious love affair. There are indications in his
correspondence, however, that he was not forgotten by some
of the local belles, even after many months had elapsed. 1

After his Freshman year, during which he was busy trying
to adjust himself to his new surroundings and to make up for
the deficiencies in his preparation, Webster had a creditable
scholastic record at Dartmouth. As he himself admitted,

1 There is a letter, dated February 25, 1802, from Hanover, and signed "CD.,"
which would indicate that the writer had a fondness for Daniel. It closes: " Do not
forget one who thinks of you with the same tender friendship which causes her to go
so far from you only with the greatest reluctance but in so doing follows your better
judgment. Yours with the truest affection." (From a letter in the collections of the
N. H. Historical Society.)

^"J'^jWlyV"

.vTte,^;,^,,, "^XT

'', ''' /''>! ?$$W$>Wtf'$t$< ^$'^$$toj*t* J *-

^'Aite 6'/wf>

WHERE WEBSTER ROOMED AS A STUDENT, HANOVER,
NEW HAMPSHIRE

WHERE WEBSTER RECORDED DEEDS, FRYEBURG, MAINE

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 49

there were others who read more than he did, but he mastered
whatever books he took up. He once said to Jacob McGaw :

So much as I read I made my own. When a half hour or an hour,
at most, had elapsed, I closed my book, and thought over what I had
read. If there was anything peculiarly interesting or striking in the
passage, I endeavored to recall it, and lay it up in my memory, and
commonly could effect my object. Then if, in debate or conversa-
tion afterward, any subject came up on which I had read something, I
could talk very easily as far as I had read, and then I was very care-
ful to stop. Thus greater credit was given me for extensive and
accurate knowledge than I really possessed. 1

Webster evidently possessed to a high degree that faculty of
mental concentration which is so often found in men of great
genius. The charge that he was indolent does not seem to be
substantiated by the evidence. "My life was not an idle
one," he once broke out. "What fools they must be to suppose
that anybody could succeed in college or public life without
study!'' 2 Shurtleff, his fellow student and tutor, wrote of
him, "Mr. Webster was remarkable for his steady habits, his
intense application to study, and his punctual attendance
upon the required exercises." He rose very early, sat in chapel
at daybreak, and often read far into the night. s There were
fields in which his scholarship was decidedly deficient. He
once told George Ticknor that, while he was better informed
in history and English than any of his class, and was good in
composition, he was not strong in Greek and mathematics.
He said shortly before his death, "Would that I had pursued
my Greek till I could read and understand Demosthenes in
his own language ! " But Webster had the gift of making the
most of his knowledge, and later when Latin literature was the

1 National Edition, XVII, 51.

2 Webster Centennial Proceedings, p. 35.

8 When Professor Sanbora once said to him at his own table in Franklin, "It is
commonly reported that you did not study much in college," Webster burst out:
" I studied and read more than all the rest of my class, if they had all been made into
one man. And I was as much above them all then as I am now ! " See Webster Cen-
tennial Proceedings, p. 35. Webster's classmate, Hotchkiss, wrote, February 25, 1853 :
" Webster was never an idle student, as some persons falsely and erroneously believe."
(National Editiort, XVII, 66.)

50 DANIEL WEBSTER

topic of conversation he held his own with Rufus Choate and
Caleb Gushing, two of the most learned men of his generation.
He did a good deal of dreaming, and visions of a brilliant
future flitted across his mind.

The curriculum which Webster pursued may be examined
in the "Laws to be observed by the members of Dartmouth
College/' enacted by the Trustees on February 9, 1796. As
a Sophomore, he continued his Latin and Greek, reading
Cicero's De Orators and a collection called Grceca Majora,
but he also studied algebra and geometry (subjects now usually
covered in the preparatory school), together with geography
and exercises in logic, composition, and speaking. In his
Junior year, Latin and Greek were still prescribed, but the
course was broadened by the addition of Paley's Political
Philosophy (first published in England in 1785), the sixth
book of which was devoted to political science, a subject pe-
culiarly fascinating to Webster. The Senior work included
"Metaphysics, Theology, and Natural Law," some of the books
assigned being Locke's famous treatise On Human Under-
standing, Edwards On the Will^ Stewart's Philosophy of the
Mind, and Burlamaqui's popular Principles of Natural Law
(published in Geneva in 1747 and republished in Boston in
1792), which Webster seems to have reread frequently. This
curriculum emphasized, besides the Greek and Roman classics,
the basic elements of philosophy, theology, and law, and
particularly the writing and speaking of our native tongue.
It will be observed that there was very little training in scien-
tific methods, and no instruction in the modern languages.

Although Webster did not receive the highest grades in his
dass, he was not far from the top. He was elected on June 5,
1800, while he was a Junior, to the honorary scholarship
society of Phi Beta Kappa, of which twelve out of his class
of thirty were members ; and some of the extant records of
the Dartmouth Chapter are in his handwriting as Secretary.
When the time came for Commencement appointments, the
faculty could not assign him the Latin Salutatory, for that was
automatically given to the foremost scholar, Thomas A.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 51

Merrill, later a clergyman for many years in Middlebury,
Vermont. The English Valedictory had usually been awarded
by vote of the class, but a feud between the two literary socie-
ties the Social Friends and the United Fraternity pre-
vented a choice; whereupon the faculty, exercising their
authority, ignored Webster who was the candidate of the
United Fraternity and appointed Caleb Tenney, afterwards
a minister at Wethersfield, Connecticut. Webster was offered
as consolation either a poem or an oration in English, but,
disgruntled at not receiving the English Valedictory, requested
to be excused from appearing on the Commencement plat-
form. 1 As a consequence, that member of the graduating class
who was later to shed the most lustre upon the college had no
part in the programme on August 27, 1801. The story that,
in a fit of petulance, he tore up his diploma, crying, "My
industry may make me a great man, but this miserable parch-
ment can not!" was told by Charles Lanman, and sponsored
by the authority of Theodore Parker; but it was never
sanctioned by Webster and is entirely mythical. 2

A few extant specimens of Webster's composition at this
period show how far he had progressed as an author. His
earliest attempt at poetry of which we have any knowledge is
a passage in couplets sent on December 20, 1798, to his friend,
George Herbert, 3 in which " heart " rhymes somewhat loosely
with "Clark," and "Time" with "thine." It was his custom
to enclose verses in letters to his classmates, but few of them
are above mediocrity. Webster was almost devoid of the
lyrical and imaginative quality without which such jeux
d* esprit are of slight value, and he did not then, or later, have
any of the gracefulness of phrasing which frequently serves as
a substitute for inspiration. In his Junior year he earned part

1 Webster told Rufus Choate that " no disappointment of his whole life ever affected
him more keenly." (Parker, Reminiscences of Rufus Choate, p. 270.)

2 The evidence on this subject is discussed with clearness and thoroughness in
Professor Richardson's Address, Webster Centennial Proceedings, pp. 50-52.

3 George Herbert (1778-1820), who graduated a year before Webster, became a
lawyer in Ellsworth, Maine. Later he was pitifully impecunious and wrote Webster
several begging letters, to which the latter responded with characteristic generosity.

52 DANIEL WEBSTER

of his board at the college by contributing under the pseudonym
of "Icarus" to the village newspaper, the Dartmouth -Gazette,
which had been started in August 1799 by Moses Davis, a
young printer from Concord. 1 Webster's articles included
essays on "Hope/* 2 on "Charity/* and on "Fear," poems on
"Winter" and on "Spring" (both in blank verse), a metrical
epistle on Jefferson's candidacy for the Presidency, and some
miscellaneous discussions of contemporary affairs exhibiting
a strong Federal bias. In addition to this material, we have
also one of his college themes, written on December 15, 1800,
and presenting, in about five hundred words, an argument for
the acquisition of Florida by the United States. There is a
tradition that he wrote a drama which was acted on the com-
mencement stage in his Junior year, but no evidence regarding
it can be discovered.

It was in debating and public speaking that Webster was
most conspicuous at Dartmouth. The bashfulness and nerv-
ous apprehension which had so embarrassed him at Exeter
had now vanished, and he was entirely at ease, even before large
audiences. The rivalry between the two debating societies
the Social Friends (founded in 1782) and the United Frater-
nity (founded in 1786) was intense and stimulating.
Webster, who joined the United Fraternity on November 7,
1797, soon became its most active member, holding in succes-
sion several honors, beginning with "Inspector of Books"
(August 12, 1798), and advancing through the offices of

1 The earliest letter of Webster's which has been preserved was written on August 27,
1799, to Moses Davis, submitting a manuscript and offering himself as a weekly con-
tributor to the Dartmouth Gazette (National Edition, XVI, 3). Webster also contributed
to a local periodical called the Literary Tablet, under the signature of " Monos," but all
copies of that magazine have been lost. Manuscript copies of many of Webster's
writings at this period are preserved in the archives of the New Hampshire Historical
Society in Concord, and there are others in the Dartmouth College Library (see the
Boston Herald, November 4, 1907).

2 This, Webster's first contribution to the Gazette, was dated August 27, 1799.
Beginning as prose, it changed later to blank verse, with opening lines as follows :

Upborne on Hope's elastic wings, the soul
Scans the dark prospect of futurity,
Opes distant, pleasing objects to the mind
And keeps still burning emulation's flame.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 53

" Librarian," "Orator," and "Vice-President" to that of
President (November 25, 1800). The subjects of the weekly
debates in which Webster frequently participated ranged
over a wide field, including such questions as "Are great riches
conducive to happiness?" "Ought separate schools to be
provided for the education of the different sexes ?" and "Does
eloquence tend to the investigation of the truth?" l We are
told that, by the close of his Junior year, "Black Dan" was
accounted the best writer and speaker in college. "The
powers of his mind," declared one of his friends, "were remark-
ably displayed by the compass and force of his arguments
in extemporaneous debate." 2 His classmate, the Reverend
Elihu Smith, spoke of one characteristic which Webster dis-
played throughout his career :

In his movements, he was rather slow and deliberate, except when
his feelings were aroused; then, his whole soul would kindle into a
flame. I recollect that he used to commence speaking rather monot-
onously and without much excitement, but would always rise, with
the importance of the subject, till every eye was fixed upon him. 3

The testimony as to his effectiveness as a debater is vir-
tually unanimous. "We used to listen to him," wrote the
Honorable Henry Hubbard, "with the deepest interest and
respect, and no one thought of equalling the vigor and glow
of his eloquence." 4 Even with members of the faculty he did
not hesitate to express his own views, and they were forced
to acknowledge his talents. Professor Woodward, in predict-
ing a brilliant future for young Webster, said, "That man's

1 For a fuller treatment of the policies and procedure of the two societies, see Professor
Charles F. Richardson's address on " Mr. Webster's College Life " in the Webster
Centennial Proceedings and Professor Herbert D. Foster's article in the Dartmouth
dlumni Magazine for April 1927, pp. 517-20.

2 Letter of the Reverend Brown Emerson to Professor Sanborn, November 19, 1852
(National Edition, XVII, 52).

3 National Edition, XVII, 46. Dr. Smith recalled that Webster was accustomed to
arrange his thoughts in his mind in his room or on private walks, and put them on paper
just before the exercise was called for.

4 //V., p. 47. Henry Hubbard (1784-1857), who graduated from Dartmouth in
1803, was later United States Senator (1835-41) and Governor of New Hampshire,
and his judgment can be relied upon.

54 DANIEL WEBSTER

victory is certain who reaches the heart through the medium
of the understanding. He gained me by combating my
opinions, for I often attacked him merely to try his strength/' l

The citizens of Hanover asked Webster to deliver the Inde-
pendence Day Oration in that village in 1800, when he was
only a Junior and in his nineteenth year. The Dartmouth
Gazette^ in its account, said that "the students first formed a
procession at the college and moved to the President's house,
where they were joined by the officers of the college, and
immediately after by a respectable number of the neighboring
citizens.'* The oration itself was delivered in the meeting-
house, and the Gazette declared that, though composed on
very short notice, it "would have done honor to gray-headed
patriotism, and crowned with new laurels the most celebrated
orators of our country." It was published "by request of
the subscribers" in a small pamphlet, and is worth examina-
tion as the first of a long series of occasional addresses. It
must be judged with his youth and lack of experience always in
mind ; but it will not suffer by comparison with most of the
Fourth of July orations delivered to-day in small towns of the
United States. The biographers who have condemned it
because of its floridity and bombast would have done well to
remember, not only that Webster was not yet of voting age,
but also that the trend of the times was towards an exuberant
nationalism and a highly ornamental phraseology. It would
have been astounding if the Dartmouth undergraduate, with
all his native genius, had not been affected by the smugness and
boastfulness of his generation.

Considering the period and the occasion, it was natural that
the speech should denounce Great Britain and glorify the
United States. The orator referred to England as "imperious
Britain" and "haughty Albion," and, in defiance of natural
history, announced :

America, manfully springing from the torturing fangs of the British
lion, now rises majestic in the pride of her sovereignty, and bids her
eagle elevate his wings.

1 Knapp, Life of Webster, pp. 9-10.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 55

With undisguised satisfaction, he contrasted the peace
which our country was enjoying with the sufferings of con-
tinental Europe, then being overrun by Napoleon :

We can now sit down beneath the shadow of the olive, while her
cities blaze, her streams run purple with blood, and her fields glitter,
a forest of bayonets.

Even in the pursuit and dissemination of education, he
claimed superiority for America :

Yale, Providence, and Harvard now grace our land; and Dart-
mouth, towering majestic above the groves which encircle her, now
inscribes her glory on the registers of fame ! Oxford and Cambridge,
those oriental stars of literature, shall now be lost, while the bright
sun of American science displays his broad circumference in un-
eclipsed radiance.

Like most of his countrymen in 1800, he was quite ready to
defy the world, and, if necessary, to fight France as well as
England :

But Columbia stoops not to tyrants ; her sons will never cringe to
France; neither a supercilious, five-headed Directory, nor the gas-
conading Pilgrim of Egypt will ever dictate terms to sovereign
America.

Despite its noisy provincialism and inflated style, this Han-
over oration is significant in the emphasis which the youthful
Webster lays on the need of a truly national spirit and of a
staunch fidelity to the principles of the Federal Constitution.
Like most of the faculty and the undergraduates, he was
strongly Federalist in his political beliefs, and he was a member
^of a "Federal Club" which had been formed in the student
body. 1 In speaking of the Constitution, he used a sentence
which perhaps first publicly expressed the veneration for it
which was later to mark him as a statesman :

But, in the adoption of our present system of jurisprudence, we see
the powers necessary for the government voluntarily springing from

1 See the letter from Mrs. George Herbert, March 16, 1856, printed in National
Edition, XVII, 74, in which she speaks of a " Constitution of the Federal Club," with
several signatures appended, among which was that of Webster, and adds, " These were
doubtless intimate friends and choice spirits, of that early period of life ; and probably
not one of them now survives."

56 DANIEL WEBSTER

the people, their only proper origins and directed to the public good,

their only proper object.

This has much of the tone of Daniel Webster at his finest,
and would have fitted perfectly into the Reply to Hayne. The
dominating theme of the oration was what Lodge called " the
necessity and the nobility of the union of the States/' and this,
in varying tones and degrees of emphasis, was Webster's text
from youth to age.

Another oration of this period was the funeral eulogy delivered
in honor of one of his classmates, Ephraim Simonds, who
died at Hanover on June 18, 1801, at the age of twenty-six.
It is difficult, in such a production, to avoid emotional exaggera-
tion, and Webster yielded to the temptation. He said, for
instance, in one paragraph :

Simonds shall never be forgotten. The future child of Dartmouth,
as he treads o'er the mansions of the dead, with his hand on his bosom
shall point, "There lies Simonds !" and however careless of his eternal
being, however immersed in dissipation or frozen in apathy, he shall
check for a moment the tide of mirth, and while an involuntary tear
starts in his eye, shall read

Hicjacet, quern religio et sdentia condecoraverunt.

Simonds's monument, set up by the United Fraternity
beneath the noble pines in the Hanover Burying Ground, still
stands, bearing some verses probably composed by Webster :

Science, religion, in our Simonds shone,
And all the manly virtues were his own.
With anguished hearts we mourn his early doom,
And pay affection's tribute at his tomb.

In August, the spot is charming, and the visitor is sure to
look with curiosity at the row of headstones marking the graves
of dead Dartmouth students. But Simonds's slaty memorial
has begun to crumble, and the letters of the inscription are
almost indecipherable. Even if they could easily be read,
it is doubtful whether any "child of Dartmouth" to-day knows
or cares what they mean. Webster mouthed sonorous phrases
and culled skillfully the flowers of rhetoric. The feeling

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 5?

which he displayed was genuine. But the world would have
lost nothing if the eulogy had been forgotten and its words
had died upon the air. 1

Although Webster, as we have explained, took no part in the
Commencement exercises of 1801, he did deliver during that
week an oration before the United Fraternity, which was later
published from a manuscript copy which, by vote of the mem-
bers, had been deposited in the society archives. 2 The sub-
ject was "The Influence and Instability of Opinion" by
which he meant "Public Opinion," or the Fox PopuU, which
he did not believe to be identical with the Vox Dei. It was,
like so many Federalist utterances of the early nineteenth
century, an attack on the theories of that dangerous Demo-
crat, Thomas Jefferson. After expatiating on the pernicious
effects of public opinion in the fields of literature, science,
religion, and politics, Webster concluded that the truly great
man was he who could stand firm "amidst the turmoil of
passion and prejudice, amidst the conflict of the winds and
waters of party and opinion." He named Locke, Newton,
and Washington as men who possessed this quality of internal
greatness, and said, in conclusion :

Let our sentiments be immovable by any other powers than truth
and conviction ; and let neither tergiversation nor seduction attach
us to the systems of those opinionated visionaries who mistake the
fantastic dreams of their own minds for the oracles of philosophy.

Rufus Choate, in reading this production^ was struck by its
"copiousness, judgment, and enthusiasm," and the sentence
just quoted is, in its vocabulary, remarkable for a young man
still under twenty.

1 When George Ticknor, in 1810, told Webster of finding a copy of the Oration on
Simonds y as it was printed in pamphlet form, Webster seemed disturbed, and said:
" I thought till lately that, as only a few copies of it were printed, they must all have
been destroyed long ago ; but, the other day, Bean, who was in college with me, told
me he had one. It flashed through my mind that it must have been the last copy in
the world, and that if he had it in his pocket it would be worth while to kill him, to
destroy it from the face of the earth. So I recommend you not to bring your copy
where I am."

2 See the New York Herald, August 16, 1853.

58 DANIEL WEBSTER

Webster himself had later only regret for these early per-
formances and spoke of them disparagingly. 1 In comment-
ing upon them, he once said, with clear discernment :

I had not then learned that all true power in writing is in the idea,
not in the style, an error into which the An Rhetorlca^ as it is usually
taught, may easily lead stronger heads than mine. 2

But those who have taken the pains to read these orations
with care will not be disposed to be too severe upon them.
With all their defects, they show Webster's later style in the
making : the effective use of short and crisp sentences following
balanced periods; the fondness for adjectives, verbs, and
nouns in series of three, such as "For us they fought, for us
they bled, for us they conquered"; the mingling of poly-
syllabic Latin derivatives with briefer Anglo-Saxon words;
and the complete clarity of utterance, even in the discussion of
abstruse topics. Compared with the Plymouth Oration of
1820, these youthful discourses seem verbose and bombastic,
but they are fully as mature as similar efforts of other colle-
gians, such as Edward Everett and Charles Sumner, who
afterwards developed into great orators.

It is a pity that we know so little about Webster's inner
life at Dartmouth. Most of the stereotyped reminiscences of
his friends seem to indicate that he was something of a prodigy
and prig. But here and there in the midst of the formal letters
of himself and his coterie of friends we get a touch of human-
ity. Professor Sanborn tells us that for two years he garbed
himself in homespun like the other farmers' sons, but that,
after the opening of the Junior year, he became more fastidi-
ous in his attire and dressed rather better than the average
undergraduate.

1 Webster, in conversation with Professor C. C. Felton, said that Joseph Dennie,
the journalist, wrote a review of the Hanover Oration, which was printed " in a literary
paper which he then edited " presumably the United States Gazette, of which Dennie
had charge in 1 800. Webster went on : " He praised parts of the oration as vigorous
and eloquent; but other parts he criticised severely, and said they were mere empti-
nesses. I thought his criticism was just; and I resolved that whatever else should be
said of my style, from that time forth there should be no emptiness in it." (National
Edition, XIII, 582, reprinted from the American Whig Review y December 1852.)

2 Autobiography, National Edition, XVII, n.

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 59

We are told that he and his group of friends* like the early
Christians, "had all things common/* and that the first one
to rise in the morning clothed himself in the best that the
apartments could offer, the last one out of bed being the one
to suffer most. 1 There is a story of his carrying off with him
on his vacation a new and glossy beaver belonging to his chum,
Benjamin Clark, leaving in its stead a battered old felt hat,
which Clark, lacking other headgear, had to wear for some
weeks. 2

There were, of course, social events in the village of Hanover,
and the place probably seemed very gay to the boy who had
been brought up in the rural simplicity of Salisbury Lower
Village. Many of his classmates and friends were initiated
into the Masonic order, but neither he nor Ezekiel ever joined
a lodge. Some allusions in his letters indicate that he had
learned to dance and was no recluse. One of his friends remem-
bered that he joined in games of ball and other physical exer-
cises, 3 but he was certainly no athlete. During the winter,
like many of his impecunious college mates, he became a school-
master. In the winter of 1797-98 he taught at the house of
his Uncle William, for four dollars a month, and during the
ensuing winter he was engaged at the schoolhouse at Shaw's
Corner, near his birthplace, for six dollars a month, the period
of employment being ordinarily three months. Writing from
Salisbury, on February 5, 1800, he tells Bingham that he has
fifty pupils, including "five English grammarians, I mean
students in English, and two Latin scholars/' 4 Special allow-
ances were made for cases like his, and he had no difficulty in
keeping up with his class.

Chase, in his History of Dartmouth College and Hanover, N. H.>
says that the moral tone of the college deteriorated from
1790 to 1800, and that there was, at the close of the century,
a "wave of irreligion." Only a single member of the class of
i?99> we are told, was publicly known as a professing Christian.
This may well have been true, but there is nothing to show

1 National Edition, XVII, 76. 2 JMd.

8 Ibld.> p. 66, Letter from Hotchkiss. * IHd., p. 79.

60 DANIEL WEBSTER

that this alleged laxity had any effect on Webster, and it is
worth noting that eight of the thirty members of his graduating
class became clergymen. Certainly the existing correspond-
ence between Webster and his friends offers no evidence of
either dissipation or what used to be called with horror
"infidelity."

Even after graduation, Webster kept in touch with Dart-
mouth and his friends in Hanover. He frequently returned
to it at Commencement and made sentimental journeys to his
former haunts. The story of how, in the Dartmouth College
Case, he saved his Alma Mater from dissolution will be the
theme of a later chapter. . . . The college, on her part, has
rejoiced to do him honor. In 1882, a Daniel Webster Pro-
fessorship of Latin was founded. In 1901, there was an im-
pressive celebration at Hanover, with addresses by President
William Jewett Tucker, Samuel W. McCall, Frank S. Black,
George F. Hoar, and Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller, com-
memorating the centennial of Webster's graduation. At
this time the corner stone of Webster Hall, a beautiful modern
auditorium in brick and granite, was laid by Samuel Appleton,
Esquire, the only living grandson of Daniel Webster. One
may visit the house where he once lived and study his portraits
hanging on the walls and walk a street which bears his name.
Indeed, it is of Daniel Webster that every intelligent visitor
thinks first when he stops at Hanover and strolls about among
the college buildings.

During Webster's four years at Dartmouth, he made steady
progress towards maturity. Although mathematics aroused
his dislike and Greek did not stir his interest, he became
something of a scholar in Latin, and extended his acquaintance
with English literature, modern history, and philosophy. His
most noticeable advancement intellectually, however, had
come from his wide reading in history and politics. This
mental growth produced a keen interest in governmental
affairs, both in Europe and in the United States, and some of
his comments on the contemporary situation indicate that he
was fascinated by what was going on. In the midst of the in-

EXETER AND DARTMOUTH 61

tense party antagonism which preceded the election of 1800,
Webster, appalled by the iniquities of the Jeffersonians, wrote
his friend, Bingham, that he feared "intestine feuds" and could
see in his imagination the time "when the banner of civil war
shall be unfurled*' and when "American blood shall be made
to flow in rivers, by American swords." l Already, moreover,
he was a firm believer In a strong central government, and he
burst out, in the letter just quoted, "Heaven grant that the
bonds of our federal union may be strengthened . . . that
traitors may be abashed, and that the stars and stripes of
United Columbia may wave triumphant." This is the sort of
language with which Daniel Webster was later to make his
countrymen familiar.

Webster had also developed amazingly in courage and self-
confidence. The timid, uncouth rustic who had been so be-
wildered at Exeter had now acquired poise and an assurance
which sometimes could not be differentiated from conceit.
He had had an opportunity of measuring himself in competi-
tion with other youths of the same age; he had suddenly
exhibited that facility and forcefulness in speaking which were
to be so large a part of his equipment in statesmanship ; and
he had discovered that he had a gift for leading others. He
was moody, sometimes lethargic, but never negligible. As
other important assets, he had displayed a tenacious memory,
a remarkable capacity for intellectual concentration, and a
talent for writing. His health, meanwhile, had improved until
he was a fairly robust man. Those who knew Webster at
Dartmouth both undergraduates and teachers were im-
pressed by his potentialities and did not hesitate to predict
his future eminence, although few could have prognosticated
the heights which he would reach.

1 National Edition, XVII, 79. A portion of this interesting letter was later printed
as a contribution to the Dartmouth Gazette.

Ill

MATURING YEARS

I cannot control my fortune : I must follow wherever circumstances lead.
WEBSTER, Letter to Bingham, October 6, 1802

I really often desfpaired. I thought I never could make myself a lawyer
and was almost going back to the business of school teaching.

WEBSTER, Autobiography

THE seven years following Webster's graduation from Dart-
mouth were a probationary period during which he was serving
his apprenticeship to the law. To this profession, which he
chose without enthusiasm and with some misgivings as to his
qualifications, he was not absolutely devoted, and he had
hours of indecision when he felt that he had embarked on the
wrong career. 1 There was, however, no escape in any other
direction. Meanwhile, with crucial problems to settle and
routine duties to fulfill, he wisely made the most of his spare
time by reading as widely as possible. Deprived of the per-
sonal stimulus of teachers and of college competition, he gener-
ated his own energy, storing up a fund of knowledge, both
legal and literary, which later was to be very serviceable to
him.

While Daniel had been at Hanover, Ezekiel, one year and
two months older, had been shackled to the farm as his father's
most dependable helper. The two brothers, unusually sym-
pathetic in their tastes and opinions, had been playmates dur-
ing their childhood. But Ezekiel, although more robust than

1 Webster had been one of eighteen men in his class to register in the Medical School
during his Junior year, and this has led certain people to believe that he actually
intended at one time to become a physician. As a matter of fact, he, like the others,
did this merely so that he might take courses in natural science which the Medical
School offered in its curriculum. There *is no evidence whatever that Webster ever
thought seriously of medicine as a career. See the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine,
May 1927, p. 606, and April 1929, p. 383.

MATURING YEARS 63

Daniel, had grown less rapidly to mental maturity and did not
seem to have his brother's aptitude for books. Captain
Webster's older sons were all established in life, and there was
no one to take care of him, his wife, and the two unmarried
daughters, unless Ezekiel carried on the farm work. It was
an exigency which often arose in rural New England, and in
this case Ezekiel seemed likely to be the unfortunate victim.
It was the boys themselves who took the situation into their
own hands. Ezekiel had had his ambition kindled by Daniel's
success, and the two invariably talked matters over whenever
the latter was home for his vacations. The crisis came in
May 1799, when the brothers, lying side by side on their pallet
at the tavern, held an all-night conference, as a consequence of
which they resolved to ask their father to let Ezekiel go first
to school and then to college. It was the plausible Daniel,
of course, who advanced the arguments, offering on his part
to earn money by teaching and to take more than four years,
if necessary, to secure his Dartmouth diploma. Captain
Webster's reply, which must have required some courage, was
recorded in Daniel's Autobiography as follows:

He said at once he lived but for his children ; that he had but little,
and on that little he put no value, except so far as it might be use-
ful to them. That to carry us both through college would take
all he was worth ; that for himself he was willing to run the risk, but
that this was a serious matter to our mother and two unmarried
sisters ; that we must settle the matter with them, and if their con-
sent was obtained, he would trust to Providence, and get along as
well as he could. 1

A family council was called, at which the mother, proud of
Daniel's unselfishness and Ezekiel's ambition, is reported to
have said :

I have lived long in the world and have been happy in my children.
If Daniel and Ezekiel will promise to take care of me in my old age, I
will consent to the sale of all our property, at once, and they may
enjoy the benefit of what remains after our debts are paid. 2

* National Edition, XVII, 12. 2 IKd., p. 33.

6 4 DANIEL WEBSTER

A feasible plan was at once outlined. Captain Webster
exchanged houses with his son-in-law, William Haddock,
leaving the tavern and going to live in the Elms House, where
he resided for the remainder of his life. Ezekiel was entered
immediately in Salisbury Academy, and completed his prep-
aration for college by spending nine months under Dr. Wood,
at Boscawen, as Daniel had done before him. In the spring
of 1801, he matriculated at Dartmouth only a few months
before Daniel graduated. Despite the deficiencies of his early
education, Ezekiel claimed and held the position of leading
scholar of his class.

The praiseworthy sacrifice which the parents underwent
for their children was matched by the tenderness with which
the two boys later cared for their mother and father. The
promise of future support was faithfully kept, and Daniel's
interposition in his brother's behalf was one of the most
unselfish acts ever recorded to a man's credit. Abigail and
Ebenezer Webster's confidence was rewarded by the devotion of
their sons and justified by their accomplishments in public life.

The young Dartmouth alumnus, fresh from his oratorical
triumphs, now came back to Salisbury Lower Village to live
with his parents at The Elms. There, not very ardently, he
began the study of law with his patron, Thomas W. Thompson,
whose office was diagonally to the northeast across the old
highway. 1 In those days, more than 90 per cent of Dart-
mouth's graduates entered one of the four professions law,
medicine, teaching, or the ministry. Daniel had already
tried teaching, and did not fancy it as a career. He was
not fitted by temperament to become either a physician or a
clergyman. By a process of elimination, therefore, he turned
towards the law. He wrote in the autumn to a friend, "I fell
into a law office, pretty much by casualty, after Commence-
ment, where I am at present." 2 His letters of the period

1 Thompson's office was a small wooden building, one story in height, containing
two rooms and a narrow hall the front room being used for general business and the
back room for study and private conferences with clients. It was adjacent to Thomp-
son's house, which could be reached from a side door.

2 Letter to Nathaniel Coffin, October 3, 1801 (National Edition, XVII, 94).

MATURING YEARS 65

indicate that he was often dissatisfied, apathetic, and despond-
ent, and that he was much disturbed by his father's financial
difficulties. 1

It was a period when Webster's avid mind was roving from
one project to another. He took some part in local affairs;
indeed, he once said: "My first speech after I left college
was in favor of what was then regarded as a great and almost
impracticable internal improvement, to wit, the making of a
smooth, though hilly road from Connecticut River, opposite
the mouth of the White River, to the Merrimack River at the
mouth of the Contoocook." 2 He pored restlessly over the
masterpieces of Vattel, Burlamaqui, Robertson, and Montes-
quieu; he studied Blackstone assiduously, though without
much interest; and, when ennui assailed him, he turned to
fiction and poetry. That he gained some practical legal ex-
perience is indicated by his casual remark, "I have made some
few writs, and am now about to bring an action for trespass
for breaking a violin/' 3 There is a dubious tradition that his
first case concerned a bankrupt ; tradesman in New Chester.
Thompson sent Webster, with th^ Sheriff, to seize the property,
but they found the establishmen| closed. Webster then picked
up a log of wood and hurled it/ against the door, demolishing
the panels, but did not walk inside, for that would have been
the offense of "breaking and entering." The Sheriff, stepping
across the threshold, then served the attachment. 4

Some of his letters show him in a whimsical mood as he
meditated on the charms of the young ladies from whose society
he was cut off. "My heart always overflows with affection

1 See his letters to Bingham, National Edition, XVII, 92-94 and 98-99. James
Hervey Bingham (1781-1859), whom Webster addressed as " My best friend " and
" Jemmy," became an attorney in Lempster, New Hampshire, from which village he
frequently wrote to Webster. He served creditably in the Legislature as Representa-
tive and Senator and enjoyed an excellent reputation. In 1847, through Webster's
good offices, he was appointed a clerk in the Department of State, and he died in Wash-
ington* With no one of his college mates was Webster on more intimate terms.

2 National Edition, IV, 108. The road was later the Fourth New Hampshire Turn-
pike. Webster, holding the proxies of several absent subscribers, attended the first
meeting of the proprietors in 1801, at Andover, New Hampshire.

3 Letter to Binghara, October 06, 1801 (National Edition, XVII, 96).

4 Coffin^ History of Boscamn> p. 444.

66 DANIEL WEBSTER

for the sex/* he wrote to Bingham. 1 When he was bored with
law's aridities, he strolled into the woods to shoot partridges
or squirrels, or sauntered with a fishing rod along one of the
Salisbury brooks. But he was habitually unsettled, and com-
plained, <c I never was half so much dispirited as now. Though
I make myself easy as I can, yet I am really very unpleas-
antly circumstanced/' 2

In January 1802 the precarious financial affairs of the
Websters reached a crisis a contingency which Daniel had
foretold. Money was indispensable, and he was pledged to
provide it. Through a college friend, Samuel A. Bradley, 3
he had been offered a teaching position at Fryeburg, Maine,
then a part of Massachusetts, and he finally engaged to go for
six months, at a salary of $350 a year. After his experience
as a pedagogue in Salisbury, he had no misgivings as to his
qualifications, and he set out confidently for his destination,
not far from the New Hampshire border, at the foot of the
White Mountains. The snow must have been deep and the
thermometer low when Daniel Webster arrived in Fryeburg,
but he was glad to have a change from the monotony of The
Elms, and, after he had sold his horse, he settled down gladly
to his new responsibilities.

Fryeburg, which has been agreeably described under the
name of Equity in the opening paragraphs of William Dean
Howells's A Modern Instance^ is one of the most charming of
New England villages. 4 Once a favorite hunting ground of
the formidable Pequawket Indians, it is only a mile from
LovewelPs Pond, where, in 1725, a company of colonial scouts
ambushed by the redskins defended themselves in one of the
bloodiest conflicts of pioneer days. The settlement itself lies
along a broad, elm-bordered avenue, at the eastern end of which

1 National Edition, XVII, 101. 2 Ilid^ p. 97.

8 Samuel Ayer Bradley (1774-1844), born in Concord, New Hampshire, had gradu-
ated from Dartmouth in 1799, and had become an attorney in Fryeburg, where he spent
the remainder of his life.

4 For a description of Fryeburg and for poems dealing with it, see The Illustrated
Fryeburg Memorial, a small pamphlet published in 1882. The town was named after
Chaplain Jonathan Frye, who died heroically in the batde at LoveweU's Pond,

MATURING YEARS 67

rises like a sentinel the Jockey Cap, an odd-shaped granite
mound forming a conspicuous landmark. To the north in a
long sweep are the Pequawket mountains* and, farther off to
the west, is Chocorua Peak, the monarch of the Sandwich
range. From any point in the village the residents can lift
up their eyes to the hills. The Saco River, more winding
than the Meander, flows back and forth across the valley,
crossed here and there by picturesque covered bridges. Frye-
burg was a centre for farmers and lumbermen, and its stately
residences, shut off by white fences from the street, made it
seem a prosperous community.

Fryeburg Academy occupied an insignificant, square, one-
storied building, erected in 1791, at the foot of Pine Hill, near
the corner of Main Street and the East Conway road. Here
it was that Master Webster taught the youth and maids of the
village. Despite his inexperience, he was "always dignified
in deportment," and "usually serious, but often facetious
and pleasant/* l The solemn manner in which he opened and
closed the sessions with extemporaneous prayer made a lasting
impression on several of his pupils. Naturally his pedagogi-
cal duties occupied most of his days, and he attended to
them conscientiously, winning " the universal respect of both
scholars and villagers."

Webster found in Fryeburg another friend, James McGaw,
who had graduated from Dartmouth in 1797 and had after-
wards read law in Thompson's office at Salisbury. The two
were inseparable, and McGaw, who had some facility of expres-
sion, left a vivid description of Webster at twenty :

Neither the physical nor intellectual expression of his countenance
had become so striking as in subsequent life. His cheeks were thin
and his cheek bones prominent. There was nothing especially
noticeable about him then except his full, steady, large, and searching
eyes. Nobody could see those eyes and ever forget their appearance
or him who possessed them. 2

When Charles Lanman asked him about his appearance at

1 Samuel Osgood to Professor Sanborn (National Edition, XVII, 58).

2 National Edition, XVII, 50.

68 DANIEL WEBSTER

that period, Webster replied, "Long, slender, pale, and all
eyes; indeed, I went by the name of all eyes the country
round/' l He was still very slight in figure, a mere stripling
weighing less than one hundred and twenty pounds.

Much to his satisfaction, he was able to add to his income
by outside work. He and McGaw boarded and roomed with
James R. Osgood, the Register of Deeds for Oxford County,
who employed Webster to copy in longhand the documents
which came under his jurisdiction, at the rate of one shilling
and sixpence each. 2 Although it was a tedious task, Webster
toiled at it faithfully during the winter months. In writing
about his labors, he said :

Four evenings in a week earned two dollars; and two dollars a
week paid my board. This appeared to me to be a very thriving
condition ; for my three hundred and fifty dollars salary as a school-
master was thus going on, without abatement or deduction for vivres.*

Almost half a century later, in 1851, when Webster was
serving his second term as Secretary of State, he spent some
hours in Fryeburg, where he hunted out the volumes of deeds
in his own handwriting, still neat and legible, as indeed his
chirography always was; and he declared, as he gazed at
the yellow pages, that the ache was not yet out of his fingers.
But he made no complaint in 1802, for he was helping his
brother ; and in May, during his spring vacation, he pocketed
his first quarter's salary and rode across country to Hanover,
where he placed his savings in the hands of "Zeke." 4 In

1 Lanman, p. 31.

2 The small brick structure in which Webster did his copying still stands on the south
side of the main street, not far from the centre of the village. The curious may find in
Vol. II of the bound records of the Commissioner the deeds which he copied.

8 National Edition, XVII, 13.

4 George Ticknor, then preparing for Dartmouth, saw Webster in Hanover on this
occasion and recalled that the undergraduates were " very proud and very fond of him "
and ** treated him very caressingly and very very affectionately." Ticknor remembered
that Webster at this time " was thin and had not the appearance of being a strong man."
He remained in Hanover two or three days, enjoying the company of Ezekiel and the
latter's friends, and calling upon the young ladies of the village, and then spent a week
with his parents in Salisbury. For Ticknor's account of the visit, see Curtis, I, 51-52.
Webster himself described his experiences in a letter to Bingham, May 18, 1802 (Na-
tional Edition, XVII, 107-10).

MATURING YEARS 69

his Autobiography, Daniel called this t the first earnings of my
life/' forgetting his earlier wages as a teacher during his winter
absences from Dartmouth.

At Fryeburg, Webster found himself in lively society, sur-
rounded by "men of information and conversable manners/'
and he did not lack diversion. In a poetical epistle to his
friend, Porter, he described his lot as follows :

Where Saco rolls, (a name so rough and fierce
It frights the Muse to bring it into verse,)
Tied to my school, like cuckold to his wife,
Whom God knows he 'd be rid of, runs my life.
Six hours to yonder little dome a day,
The rest to books, to friendship, and to tea ;
And now and then, as varying fancies choose,
To trifle with young Mary, or the Muse.
This life, tho' pleasant of its kind, is yet
Much too inactive, I 'm resolved to quit. 1

He amused himself by scribbling and produced a number
of essays and poems which he grouped under the title, Sports
of Pequawket, but he did not publish them. There were
young ladies in Fryeburg who inspired him to be "a little ro-
mantic and poetical." "I have seen nearly thirty white
muslins trail across a ball room on an evening," he wrote to his
friend, Merrill. He did not, however, take either love-making
or verse-writing too seriously.

At this period he began to smoke, and there are several
references in his letters to his lighting a cigar or drawing com-
fort from his pipe. He even composed an ode beginning :

Come, then, tobacco, new-found friend,
Come, and thy suppliant attend
In each dull, lonely hour. 2

In his account at the Bradley store, the item "

1 National Edition, XVII, 114.

2 Ibid., p. 93. In later life, Webster abandoned smoking because of what he thought
:o be its injurious effect on his throat.

70 DANIEL WEBSTER

recurs frequently* along with "Raisins^ $d" l His favorite
outdoor pastime was trout fishing, to which he devoted
Wednesday and Saturday afternoons in spring and summer,
but always with a copy of Shakespeare in his pocket in case
the fish proved unresponsive.

Many years afterwards, Webster wrote that he found in
Fryeburg cc most of the elements of a happy New England
village/' and spoke especially of the local clergyman "a
learned, amiable, and excellent minister of the gospel/' 2
He continued to be an omnivorous reader, and secured from
the local attorney, Judah Dana, permission to use his library.
There he browsed, renewing his study of Blackstone, and
poring over such works as Adams's Defense of the American
Constitution) Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Goldsmith's
History of England, Williams's Vermont, and other historical
and political treatises. One of the greatest of American ora-
tions, Fisher Ames's speech in 1795 on the Jay Treaty with
Great Britain, fell into Webster's hands, and he memorized
it, with full approval of its strongly Federalist doctrines. As
for belles-lettres, McGaw speaks of their reading aloud alter-
nately all of Pope's poetry and the Tatler and the Spectator,
which they procured at the circulating library in the village;
and Webster was much struck with the Pursuits of Literature
that quaint poem by Mathias, richer In prose annotation
than in couplets, but always a boon to bibliophiles.

Webster was complimented by an invitation to deliver the
Independence Day Oration, which he spoke in the old Frye-
burg Church on July 5, the actual anniversary coming in
1802 on a Sunday. It was a sound exposition of those Federal-
ist principles which he had absorbed at his father's fireside
and which labeled him, even in his youth, as a conservative.
In one notable paragraph, prophetic of many of his later ad-

1 These items are excerpted from an interesting monograph, John Adams and Daniel
Webster as Schoolmasters (1903), by Elizabeth Porter Gould. From January 9 to
September 3, 1802, Webster ran up a bill of $33.89 at the Bradley store. He paid $24
on account in June, but the balance was not settled until April 29, 1804, when Samuel
A. Bradley paid $9.64, doubtless at Webster's request.

2 National Edition, XVIII, 147.

MATURING YEARS 71

dresses on the same theme, he stressed the Importance of
guarding the integrity of oor government :

To the preservation of this Constitution every system of policy
should ultimately tend. It should be considered as the sacred and
inviolable palladium, ready to wither the hand which would lay hold
on it with violence. . . . Whoever does not wish to perpetuate our
present form of Government in its purity, is either weak or wicked ;
he cannot be the friend of his Country. . . . If the Constitution be
picked away by piecemeal, it is gone, and gone as effectively as if
some military despot had grasped it at once, trampled it beneath his
feet, and scattered its loose leaves in the wild winds. ... To alter
the instrument which ties together five millions of people, on which
rests the happiness of ourselves and posterity, is an important and
serious business, not to be undertaken without obvious necessity, nor
conducted without caution, deliberation, and diffidence.

The young man who spoke these words was already the
"Defender of the Constitution," distrustful of change, sus-
picious of innovation. The oration, we are told, "was greatly
admired by the Federal party and much disliked by the Demo-
cratic" a verdict which Webster probably expected. Of
perhaps more immediate importance to the orator of the day
was the five dollars with which he was presented as an hono-
rarium.

When his six months were over, Webster was urged to re-
main at Fryeburg, the inducements offered being a salary of
five or six hundred dollars, a house of his own, a piece of land
to cultivate, and ultimately a remunerative position as Clerk
of the Court of Common Pleas. 1 If he had at that time any
premonition that he was to become great, he kept it carefully
concealed. In discussing his prospects with Bingham, he
wrote :

The talent with which Heaven has intrusted me is small, very
small, yet I feel responsible for the use of it, and am not willing to
pervert it to purposes reproachful or unjust, nor to hide it, like the
slothful servant, in a napkin. 2

1 National Edition, XVII, 1 10. 2 ttid. y p. in.

72 DANIEL WEBSTER

This may have been affectation, but he made statements
to his roommate, McGaw, which would indicate that he was
entirely sincere in his declaration that he had only "moderate
expectations of his eminence in future life/' l

But teaching school was not his goal. His father and
friends were agreed that he ought to continue with the law.
Mr. Thompson was ready to accept him again as a student,
without charge, and had promised to make him his successor
at Salisbury. Captain Webster, moreover, was getting feeble
and needed one of his sons close at hand. Accordingly, in
September 1802, after Ezekiel had come to Fryeburg for a
visit, the two brothers made a short excursion into Maine and
then returned together to Salisbury. 2 The mood in which he
resumed his accustomed place in Thompson's office is re-
vealed in a sentence in one of his letters :

To the winds I dismiss those hopes of eminence which ambition
inspired and vanity fostered. To be "honest, to be capable, to be
faithful" to my client and my conscience, I earnestly hope will be my
first endeavor.

For the next year and a half Webster was a fairly assiduous
student in Thompson's office, where the prospects of his dis-
tinguished success did not seem bright to him or to anybody
else in the vicinity. He was planted, it seemed almost irrev-
ocably, in a small rural community, among people whose
interests must have appeared very narrow, as compared with
even Fryeburg and Hanover. Confessing to Ezekiel that he
had no cash to send him, he went on, "We are all here just
now in the old way, always behind and lacking ; boys digging
potatoes with frozen fingers., and girls washing without wood." 3

1 National Edition, XVII, 51.

2 Webster revisited Fryeburg in 1806, at which time he stood godfather to William
Pitt Fessenden, 1831, and 1851. The site of his schoolhouse was purchased, in 1809,
by Samuel A. Bradley, who would never allow anyone to build upon it. In 1902,
Fryeburg observed the centennial of Webster's residence there with appropriate exer-
cises. Senator George F. Hoar, regretting that he could not be present, wrote, " It
lends a dignity to the streets of our town that his feet have been familiar to them."

3 National Edition, XVII, 123.

MATURING YEARS 73

As for Ezekiel, he was even worse off, as a letter to Daniel
proves :

Money, Daniel, money. As I was walking down to the office after
a letter, I happened to find one cent, which is the only money I have
had since the second day after I came on. It is a fact, Dan, that I
was called on for a dollar, where I owed it, and borrowed it, and have
borrowed it four times since, to pay those I borrowed It of. 1

There was, indeed, a pitiful lack of ready cash in the Webster
family, and allusions in his correspondence indicate that Daniel,
forced against his will to apply for loans, had already accumu-
lated debts small, but beyond his capacity to pay back.
Importuned by the unfortunate Ezekiel, with his exhortation,
"Whenever you meet, let money be the object of your con-
sultation," and only too well aware of Captain Webster's
straitened condition, it is no wonder that Daniel wrote to
Bingham :

This is a cold, poor, comfortless place. If the hill of difficulties be
so high we cannot climb over it, yet perhaps we can make a shift to
creep around it. At all events it is worth a trial. 2

No pessimism is so profound as that of the young, and
Webster was seldom again so despondent as he was in 1802
and 1803. His gloom was accentuated by occasional minor
illnesses. Uncertainty regarding the future kept his mind
overwrought, and he could not leave off speculating on the
projects which rushed in on his teeming brain. Driven by
surging energy and conscious power, he was "cabin'd, cribb'd,
confin'd," with no chance of escape from his captivity.

Probably he would have been less disgruntled if he had been
more sure that he had chosen the right profession. When
he completed Blackstone's Commentaries^ Thompson pre-
scribed Coke upon Littleton^ in those days the universal ele-
mentary textbook for law students in this country. With
this abstruse volume, Webster was soon completely disgusted.
He wrote later in his Autobiography :

1 National Edition, XVII, 124. 2 /&</., p. 137.

74 DANIEL WEBSTER

A boy of twenty* with no previous knowledge of such subjects, can-
not 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. 1

The ancient black-letter edition was not at all inspiring,
and Webster would have agreed with Justice Story, who com-
plained of "the intricate, crabbed, and obsolete learning of
Coke upon Littleton" and with John Quincy Adams, who called
it "a very improper book to put into the hands of a student
just entering upon the acquisition of the profession." What
Webster needed was a practical explanation of such matters
as the kinds of writs issued in a suit and the ordinary papers
required in legal transactions; instead he was occupied with
theoretical questions which could never arise in the experience
of a New Hampshire attorney. 2

Relief came when Webster, prowling through Thompson's
library, picked up Espinasse's Law of Nisi Prius, in two musty
volumes which resembled "a couple of psalm-books." To-
day this treatise is virtually obsolete, but Webster, thoroughly
bored with Coke, found it to be "plain, easy, and intelligible."
Soon he discovered for himself that the most economical way
of studying law is "in relation to particular points," by ac-
cumulating information around some definite theme or case.
Other students since that day have learned through wasteful
experience that it is always best to read with some clear pur-
pose in mind.

Webster did not neglect to lighten the heaviness of the law
with some general reading. While he was acquiring a knowl-
edge of special pleading through a perusal of Bacon's Elements
and Saunders's Reports, he was completing Hume and Gibbon,
as well as other historians, and memorizing whole pages of the
Latin classics. Some of his verse translations of Horace's

1 National Edition, XVII, 14.

2 For Webster's candid opinion of the system, see Lyman, II, 8-9. See also National
Edition, XVII, 129-31.

MATURING YEARS 75

Odes were printed in New Hampshire newspapers, but have
never been resurrected.

But this young, full-blooded man, hardly out of his teens,
had also his livelier pastimes. The essence of his philosophy
was expressed in a paragraph of a letter written to Bingham :

It is not he who spends most hours over his books that is the most
successful student. It is impossible to keep the mind on the stretch
forever; it will sometimes relax; and though we may keep our eyes
on our books, it will steal away to easier contemplations, and we may
run over pages without receiving an idea. I know this is the case
with myself, and believe it is with others. The true science of life is
to mingle amusement and business, so as to make the most of time, 1

We hear, through his letters, of trips to Concord, where
he "had fine times, singing and dancing, and skipping," to
Hanover, to Woodstock, Vermont, and to other places nearer
by. He still bantered his friends about the ladies and had
them or one or two of them on his own mind. But his
chief recreation was taken by himself, among the hills and along
the streams of Hillsborough County, where he could roam and
meditate undisturbed. In his Autobiography, there is a most
significant passage :

At this period of my life, I passed a great deal of time alone. . . .
I like to let thoughts go free, and indulge in their excursions. And
when thinking is to be done, one must of course be alone. No man
knows himself who does not thus, sometimes, keep his own company. 2

The thoughts of the solitary walker ranged over an exten-
sive field, uncircumscribed by space or time. Often, in de-
pression of spirits, he would rebel against his lot, as he did
in a letter to Merrill:

Accuracy and diligence are much more necessary to a lawyer, than
great comprehension of mind, or brilliancy of talent. His business
is to refine, define, and split hairs, to look into authorities, and com-
pare cases. A man can never gallop over the fields of law on Pegasus,
nor fly across them on the wings of oratory. If he would stand on

1 Letter to Bingham, December 23, 1803 (National Edition, XVII, 154).
. 15.

76 DANIEL WEBSTER

terra firma, he must descend ; if he would be a great lawyer, he must

first consent to be only a great drudge. 1

Yet he was still expecting to become a country lawyer and
was considering where to settle. After conducting a case at
Woodstock, he thought of opening an office in Vermont; and
he made inquiries regarding prospects in Washington, in West-
moreland, and in Chesterfield, all of them villages in Cheshire
County. He told Bingham that he was looking for a place
'* where the practice of the bar is fair and honorable/' 2 and
intimated that he preferred a location near the Connecticut
River. Mr. Thompson, who discerned his protege's ability,
suggested Portsmouth, but Webster wrote, "At present, I
do not feel that Portsmouth is the place for me/' As spring
arrived in 1804, his restlessness increased, and he was eager
to get away from too familiar Salisbury. Although he had
at least a year more of reading before he could be admitted
to the bar 3 he was convinced that he ought to study for a few
months in some other environment. . . . And then, at a
moment when he declared that his life was marked with "dark
traces and heavy shades," the miraculous happened. An
avenue of release was opened up !

As the winter closed in, it was obvious to Daniel and Ezekiel
that one of them must earn some money,, and it seemed to be
the latter's turn. In January 1804, therefore, Daniel went to
Boston, probably his first trip to that city, found an
opening in a school then being conducted by his college friend,
Cyrus Perkins, 3 and secured the position for Ezekiel, who,
although in his Senior year at Dartmouth, had been teaching
at Sanbornton, five miles from The Elms, during the winter.
Arrangements having been made with the college authorities,
Ezekiel was soon in sole charge of Perkins's small private

1 Letter to Merrill, November n, 1803 (National Edition, XVII, 151).

2 /fW.,p. 163.

3 Cyrus Perkins (1778-1849), born in Middleboro, Massachusetts, graduated from
Dartmouth in 1800, as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and, after some years of teaching,
became a physician, later returning to Hanover as Professor of Anatomy and Surgery
(1810-19). He was at one time president of the New Hampshire Medical Society.

MATURING YEARS 77

school on Short Street since renamed Kingston Street
in Boston. His contract with his predecessor specified that
Ezekiel was to receive no money from the students already in
attendance until that " quarter " was over; hence his income
did not really start until July, and meanwhile he could do
nothing for Daniel He did, however, write him on April 4,
1804, urging him to come to Boston :

I would have you decamp immediately with all your baggage from
Salisbury, and march directly to this place. . . . Consult father,
the family, and your friends, and start for Boston immediately after
receipt of this letter. Another such opportunity may never occur.
Come, and if you don't find everything to your liking, \ will carry
you back to Salisbury with a chaise and six, and pay you for your
time. I must say again, consult father. If he approves, take the
patriarchal blessing, and come. 1

Because the necessary funds were not then forthcoming,
Daniel was unable to adopt his brother's suggestion. Further-
more, he was awaiting the outcome of negotiations which
seemed likely to gain him an appointment as Clerk of the
Court of Common Pleas of Hillsborough County, and he was
in a vacillating mood. Fortunately the clerkship evaded
him, 2 and he wrote, on June 10: "For cash I have made out.
Perhaps in three weeks you may see me in Short Street." 3
It was not, however, until July 17 that he presented himself
at EzekiePs lodgings, confident that the Fates, hitherto malign,
were at last to beam upon him. 4

It soon appeared that the too sanguine Ezekiel was not
really in need of an assistant, but was ready to pay Daniel's
expenses if the latter could obtain a place in a reputable law
office. Whether through carelessness or ignorance, he had
brought with him no credentials, and he called unsuccessfully
upon two or three well-known firms. Then, with inspired
audacity, he went with his college chum, Samuel A. Bradley,

1 National Edition, XVII, 165. 2 /^W., p. 174. * J#, p. 173.

4 In one of the last letters before leaving Salisbury, he wrote to his brother : " Zeke,
I don't believe but that Providence will do well for us yet. We shall live, and live
comfortably."

7 8 DANIEL WEBSTER

to see the eminent lawyer, Christopher Gore/ an aristocratic
gentleman of wealth and worldly experience. It was at the
door of his office on the third story of "Scollay's Building/'
on Tremont Street, that Daniel Webster knocked on July 20,
with his heart beating fast in trepidation.

Bradley., who himself barely knew Gore, had volunteered
an introduction, but Webster soon took control of the situa-
tion, explained his ambitions, and secured the lawyer's atten-
tion. The very ingenuousness of the appeal must have tickled
Gore's sense of humor, and Webster's personality even then
was magnetic. Soon the frown faded from the attorney's
face. He listened courteously, made some inquiries as to
Webster's previous training, and finally said :

My young friend, you look as though you might be trusted. You
say you came to study, and not to waste time. I will take you at
your word. You may as well hang up your hat at once ; go into the
other room ; take your book and sit down to reading it, and write at
your convenience to New Hampshire for your letters. 2

The timorous Bradley, meanwhile, had disappeared, but
Webster's embarrassment had been relieved by Gore's tact, and
he lost no time in obeying these instructions. It was more
than a week before Gore knew the name of his new clerk ; but
before very long the latter was writing from "Dear Boston"
describing himself as sitting comfortably in Gore's office
a large room on the third story of a brick building in the heart
of the city with a sea-coal fire burning and near by "a most

1 Christopher Gore (1758-1827), whose father had been banished as a Tory during
the Revolution but had been restored to American citizenship by legislative act in 1787,
graduated from Harvard in the class of 1776, and studied law with Judge John Lowell.
He acquired a lucrative practice in Boston and was appointed by President Washington
in 1789 as the first District Attorney of the United States for Massachusetts. From
1796 until 1 804 he resided in England, fulfilling the duties of his office as Commissioner
under the Jay Treaty, and, in 1803, he acted for a time as our chargt d'affaires. In 1809
he was chosen Governor of Massachusetts as a Federalist, but was defeated for reelection
by Elbridge Gerry, a Democrat. In 1813, he succeeded James Lloyd as Senator from
Massachusetts, but retired in 1816 to private life. At his death, he left valuable
bequests to Harvard, and Gore Hall, formerly the home of the Harvard Library, was
named after him. He was a staunch conservative and held political principles of which
Webster thoroughly approved. See the sketch of him by Lawrence S. Mayo in the
Dictionary of American Biography*

2 Autobiography, National Edition, XVII, 18-19.

MATURING YEARS 79

enormous writing-table with half a cord of books on It." l
Webster had been fortunate, for Gore was one of the inner
circle of Boston Federalists, who knew everybody worth while
in New England, and whose legal reputation was such as to
make him the envy of an aspiring young attorney. Un-
doubtedly Webster's Federalism was strengthened by associa-
tion with a man of Gore's conservative tendencies.

For the next nine months, except for some unavoidable
absences, Webster read law under Gore's supervision, making
what he modestly called "respectable progress." In August,
while Ezekiel went back to Hanover to receive his diploma from
Dartmouth, awarded to him after only three years of actual
residence, 2 Daniel took charge of his brother's school for a
few days, 3 one of his pupils being Edward Everett, later among
his closest friends. 4 Meanwhile, at his boarding house, Mrs.
Whitwell's, in Court Street, he had met a Mr. Taylor
Baldwin, an eccentric and wealthy gentleman, who took a
fancy to Webster and asked him to be his companion on a
pleasure trip to the Hudson River. On November 5, Elec-
tion Day, the two set out "in a hackney coach, with a pair
of nimble trotters, a smart coachman before, and a footman
on horseback behind," 5 on a journey which took them to
Springfield, thence to Hartford, through the Berkshires to

1 National Edition, XVII, 198.

2 Daniel had used all his influence with his friends at Hanover to secure this con-
cession to Ezekiel. In spite of his shortened period of residence, Ezekiel was one of the
highest scholars in his class.

8 Paul Revere Frothingham, in his Edward Everett, makes the mistake of saying that
Ezekiel Webster was taken ill and " sought the temporary assistance of a younger
brother who had recently completed his law studies." The truth is that Ezekiel was
at Hanover, in excellent health, and that Daniel had by no means finished his legal
preparation.

4 Edward Everett (1794-1865) was, in 1804, in his eleventh year, and was soon to
embark on that career of remarkable precocity which has probably never been equaled
in this country. He remained in the Webster school for only a few months, going to
Boston Latin School in the autumn. Webster never forgot that Everett had once been
his pupil, and, only a few months before his own death, he wrote him, " We now and
then see, stretching across the heavens, a long streak of clear, blue, cerulean sky, with-
out cloud, or mist, or haze, and such appears to me our acquaintance, from the time
I heard you for a week recite your lessons in the little schoolhouse on Short Street to
the date hereof."

6 National Edition, XVII, 198.

80 DANIEL WEBSTER

Albany, and then down the Hudson and back through
Connecticut and Rhode Island to Providence. In Albany,
Webster made some desirable acquaintances, including Abra-
ham Van Vechten, the Schuylers, and Stephen Van Rensselaer. 1
When he reached Mrs. WhitwelFs again at the close of the
month, he had jingling in his pocket what he described as
"one hundred and twenty dear delightfuls," paid to him by
Mr. Baldwin in addition to his expenses, and most acceptable
to the impecunious Webster. Shortly afterwards, Daniel
made a trip to Salisbury to see his father, who was recovering
from a siege of illness and who, as his pathetic letters show,
was much worried about his finances. 2

In Gore's office, Webster's chief study continued to be the
common law, particularly those portions relating to special
pleading; and he actually took the pains to go through an
old folio edition of Saunders's Reports, translating from Latin
and Norman French into English and making abstracts of all
the important arguments. During the winter he was "earnest
in the study of the French language," 3 which he recognized
to be indispensable. His Journal shows that he read carefully
such standard volumes as Ward's Law of Nations, Evans On
Insurance, Viner's Title of Pleadings, Abbott On Shipping,
Bacon's Elements of Common Law, and Vattel (for the third
time). He attended regularly the sessions of courts, sum-
marizing all the decisions and observing closely the methods
of the advocates. Placed for the first time where he could
watch in action such first-rate lawyers as Harrison Gray Otis,
James Sullivan, Theophilus Parsons, Daniel Davis, and Samuel
Dexter, as well as his own patron, Christopher Gore, he had an
unusual chance for criticism and comparison; and he left in
his Diary shrewd comments on Parsons, Sullivan, and Dexter.

Once, as he was sitting alone in the office, a little man dressed
in a plain gray suit entered, and, when he was told that Mr.
Gore was out, sat down to await his return. Observing that
Webster was reading Roccus's De Navibus et Naulo, he talked

iLyman, pp. 16-17. 2 Van Tyne, pp. 14, 18. National Edition, XVII, aoa.

MATURING YEARS 81

with him on problems of maritime law s displaying an amazing
knowledge of that intricate subject. The stranger was Rufus
King, 1 the eminent Federalist, who had just come back from
England, where he had been Minister at the Court of St.
James's. Within ten years, the two were to be in Congress
together, and on the most intimate terms.

Webster's admiration for Gore increased as he grew to know
him better, and he wrote :

He is a lawyer of eminence and a deep and varied scholar. Since I
left John Wheelock, I have found no man so indefatigable in research.
He has great amenity of manners, is easy, accessible, and communica-
tive, and, take him all in all, I could not wish a better preceptor. 2

For relaxation, Webster continued to read with his usual
assiduity. He found Gifford's Juvenal "worth perusing on
more accounts than one/' but he did not care for Gibbon's
Autobiography , regarding that author as "a learned, proud,
ingenious, foppish, vain, self-deceived man." Among other
volumes which he mentions are Moore's Travels in Italy and
France, Paley's Natural Theology (which he must have read
in his college days), BoswelFs Hebrides , and Puffendorfs
Latin History of England. He contributed some communica-
tions to the newspapers, but no one has as yet been able posi-
tively to identify them. 3

Webster, although still reserved, had little difficulty in mak-
ing friends, and there were several whom he saw frequently,
including Cyrus W. Perkins, Augustus Alden, and others with

1 Rufus King (1755-1827), a native of Maine, had graduated at Harvard in 1777
and studied law in Newburyport with Theophilus Parsons. He had been a member
of the old Continental Congress and was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Con-
stitutional Convention of 1787. He moved to New York in 1788, and was soon chosen
a United States Senator from that state. He was appointed Minister to Great Britain
in 1796. Politically, he was an unswerving Federalist. See the sketch in the Diction-
ary of American Biography.

2 National Edition, XVII, 194. Letter to Merrill, November 30, 1804.

3 Thomas W. Thompson wrote to him, October 17, 1804: " I am much pleased with
the communications signed Mass, and W. and I can assure you that they have excited a
very interesting inquiry for the author. The former I recognized : the latter I had not
seen till after the receipt of your letter. Go on. Catch every leisure moment. If
pecuniary compensation should not follow, you will have a compensation of a higher
nature." (National Edition, XVII, 189.)

82 DANIEL WEBSTER

whose names his correspondence is sprinkled. Occasionally
he played backgammon with the young ladies in the Whitwell
boarding house, "in order to keep off the glooms/* and there
were numerous homes in which he was welcome, including
that of Gore. Now and then he scribbled rhymes, such as :

What nonsense lurked within the pate, oh !

Of definition-making Plato,

Who sang in philosophic metre

"Man is a rational and biped creature' 1 ?

Many do think, and so do I,

Old codger, that you told a lie;

And, yet, perhaps, you surly lout,

There is a hole where you 11 creep out ;

Males you call rational, but no man

E*er heard you say the same of woman. 1

For the most part, however, he kept hard at work, realizing
that it would be unwise for him not to improve his opportuni-
ties while he was in Boston.

It was at this period, according to the story related by
Philip Hone, that Webster first began to drink wine. His
patron, Gore, noticing that his clerk looked pale and feeble
from the effects of hard study, asked him how he lived. Web-
ster confessed that he was obliged to depend on corned beef
and cabbage and to drink water. "That will not do," said
the kindly Gore. "You must drink a glass of good wine oc-
casionally, and eat an apple after dinner to promote digestion."
"But," replied Webster, "I cannot afford to drink wine." "I
will take care of that," replied Gore; and from that time
Daniel received occasional presents of Madeira, by which he
benefited greatly. "I recovered my health and was enabled
to pursue my studies and perform my task with renewed ardor,"
he concluded, as he related the tale. 2

In January 1805, when his apprenticeship to the law was
almost completed, Webster had to make a crucial decision.
For some months Captain Webster had been using his influence

1 National Edition, XVII, 196. a Hone, Diary > II, 296-97.

MATURING YEARS 83

with his friends on the New Hampshire bench to secure for his
son an appointment as Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas
for Hillsborough County. When Chief Justice Timothy
Farrar offered the position to Daniel, his father was overjoyed.
The fees accompanying the office amounted annually to at
least $1500, and to Captain Webster, whose farm was mort-
gaged and who had seldom known what it was to be solvent,
it looked like a wonderful opening for an inexperienced youth.
Even Daniel, realizing that he would be able not only to clear
up the family indebtedness but also to help Ezekiel, felt as if
his fortune were made. There was not the slightest doubt
in his mind that he should accept what seemed like a rich
prize. , . . But once again, as so often in Webster's career,
an outside influence intervened. When he exultantly informed
Mr. Gore of the news, the latter took it for granted that his
protege would decline the offer. "Why/' said he, "you don't
mean to accept it, surely !" Webster was staggered. Then
Gore, seeing the young man's embarrassment, sat down with
him to talk it over. He stressed the fact that Daniel was
nearly through with his preparation for the law; he showed
him that the clerkship was, at best, a precarious position, the
fees of which might be reduced, and that, even if they were
not, he would be merely a clerk for the rest of his life. "Go
on," said the wise counselor, "and finish your studies; you
are poor enough, but there are greater evils than poverty;
live on no man's favor ; what bread you eat, let it be the bread
of independence; pursue your profession; make yourself
useful to your friends, and a little formidable to your enemies,
and you have nothing to fear." l

This advice, though unexpected, was sane and convincing,
and Daniel, after one or two sleepless nights, determined to
follow it. He now had to confront the painful necessity of
notifying his father of his decision. Borrowing several hundred
dollars from Joseph Taylor, one of his Boston friends, he hired
a seat in a country sleigh which had come down to Boston to

1 Autobiography, National Edition, XVII, 21.

84 DANIEL WEBSTER

market, and reached The Elms just at sunset. There sat his
father warming his hands before the fire, his face pale and his
cheeks sunken, very feeble from illness and old age. He could
not at first understand his son's refusal of the lucrative clerk-
ship, and for a few seconds he looked angry. Then, as if
resigned to the Inevitable, he said, "Well, my son, your mother
has always said you would come to something or nothing.
She was not sure which ; I think you are now about settling
that doubt for her."

The subject was never brought up again. With the borrowed
money, Daniel paid some family bills and made purchases for
his parents and sisters. Within a week he was back again in
Gore's office with his books in front of him. Before two years
had passed, the fees of the clerkship were materially reduced. 1
If Webster had accepted it, he might never have become a
figure of national importance. It may well be that Christopher
Gore, intervening at the psychological crisis, rescued Daniel
Webster from oblivion.

Because of some negligence on the part of Thomas W.
Thompson, Webster's admission to the bar was unnecessarily
delayed. 2 In March 1805, however, he was admitted to
practice in the Court of Common Pleas of Suffolk County,
being introduced formally to the judges by Mr. Gore, who
made a short speech predicting the future success of his pupil.
Having achieved his immediate goal, he proceeded at once to
Amherst, New Hampshire, where his father was sitting on the
bench, and accompanied him back home. He had now to
select a place in which to hang out his shingle. Many of
Captain Webster's neighbors were eager to have Daniel settle
at the Center Road Village, in the town of Salisbury. 3 He
himself had virtually resolved to go to Portsmouth, but, when
he found his father very feeble and ill, he could not desert him. 4

1 In the summer of 1805, Daniel evidently tried to secure the same clerkship for his
brother, Ezekiel, but the latter also decided not to accept it. See National Edition,
XVII, 215-16.

2 National Edition, XVII, 188, and XVI, 670.
8 Ibid., XVII, 197-98.

* In telling Bingham of his decision, Webster said that it was made "partly through
duty, partly through necessity, and partly through choice." (fbid^ p. 206.)

MATURING YEARS 85

Accordingly he rented In early April an office In Boscawen,
where he had studied not many years before under Dr. Wood.
Webster knew it well. It was only six miles south of the Salis-
bury Lower Village, and from it he could reach his parents
quickly in an emergency.

Boscawen accented on the opening syllable, and pro-
nounced locally Bos-kwine was first settled in 1733* and
incorporated in iy6o > when it was named as a compliment to
the famous British admiral. It is to-day a picturesque New
England village, built along a wide and shaded street parallel
with the west bank of the Merrimack, between that river and
a low ridge of hills. The valley at this point is more than half a
mile wide an intervale of rich alluvial deposits, rising across
the Merrimack in a steep sandy ascent to the town of Canter-
bury on the eastern shore. Houses are still standing which
were there in Webster's time, and the general appearance of
the spot has altered very little in a century and a quarter.
It has always been a hospitable community, and the inhabit-
ants are justly proud of its distinguished sons among whom,
besides Daniel and Ezekiel Webster, have been Charles Carle-
ton Coffin and John A. Dix. The population by 1800 had
increased to fourteen hundred, and there was a thrilling mo-
ment, just before Webster settled there, when Boscawen had a
slender chance of. being designated as the state capital. But
Concord had more influential backers, and, after a little flurry,
Boscawen relapsed into its customary calm.

Webster's first clients were received in a small building
attached to a dwelling house on King Street the home of
Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Dix. In this residence John A.
Dix was born in 1798, and he was a child playing with his
toys when Webster began to practise law. The Webster
office was torn down before 1880, but the site is marked by a
bronze tablet fastened to a large boulder. There he remained
until September 1807, a period of approximately two years
and a half, lodging meanwhile with Mr. Joel French, in the
one-story dwelling still standing north of the village parsonage.

In Boscawen, then, Webster opened what he cynically called

86 DANIEL WEBSTER

a shop "for the manufacture of justice writs/' and a modest
business soon came his way. Within a few weeks he wrote
Ezekiel that he had already drawn fourteen court writs and
that Mr. Dix had given him about forty demands of various
descriptions to collect; 1 but he added less optimistically on
July 29, "I pick up ... but very little cash, hardly laying
my hand upon a dollar/' 2 He had originally set five hundred
dollars as the sum which he ought to earn for the first year,
and had determined not to remain in Boscawen if his receipts
fell short of that amount. How far he achieved this modest
desire may be judged from a letter which he wrote on January
19, 1806, to Bingham:

It is now eight months since I opened an office in this town, during
which time I have led a life which I know not how to describe better
than by calling it a life of writs and summonses. Not that I have
dealt greatly in those articles, but that I have done little else. My
business has been just about so-so; its quantity less objectionable
than its quality. 1 shall be able at the end of the year to pay my bills,
and pay perhaps sixty pouncis for my books. I practice in Hills-
borough, Rockingham, and Grafton. Scattering business over so
much surface is like spilling water on the ground. In point of profit
I should do better, much better, if it were convenient to attend the
courts in one county only. 3

Webster confessed later that his legal business at Boscawen,
while tolerable, was not altogether to his mind, and that there
were in the village "no pleasures of a social sort/' He worked
very hard, often sleeping on a cot in his office, and seldom re-
tiring before midnight. Most of his cases involved the collec-
tion of bills, and the clientage which he was building up was
not the sort which, in his dreams, he had thought of himself
as securing. He found, furthermore, that "an accursed thirst
for money vitiates everything/' and after some experience
with shyster rivals he wrote Bingham :

Our profession is good if practised in the spirit of it ; it is dam-
nable fraud and iniquity, when its true spirit is supplied by a spirit of
mischief-making and money-catching. 4

1 National Edition, XVI, 6-7. 2 Ibid., XVII, 214. Ibid., p. 220.

4 Letter of January 19, 1806 (National Edition, XVII, 222).

MATURING YEARS 87

Although disillusioned as to the law, he did not lower his
own ideals He still maintained that study was "truly the
grand requisite for a lawyer/' and, when he felt "the burden
of perpetual solitude and seclusion/ 9 he took down a volume
on law or history and buried himself in its pages. After
deploring the corruption and depravity of his country, he
sought refuge in the Latin classics. He even wrote at least
four articles for the Monthly Anthology, a literary magazine
started in Boston in 1804. The first, published in 1806, was
an intellectual review of Tunis Mortman's Treatise on Political
Economy. This was followed, in 1807, by a criticism of Volume
I of Johnson's New York Reports,, and by an article on the
French language. In 1808, appeared a review of Lawe's
Treatise on Pleading. His attendance at the various courts
obliged him to travel considerably, and we hear of him at
Boston (December 1805), at Fryeburg (August 1806), and at
Portsmouth, as well as at other places less distant. He wrote
to "Zeke," September 24, 1805, "I have been absent a month
on the tour of courts, or you would have heard from me before."
He signalized his return to his own section of the state by
delivering, in 1805, an Independence Day Oration before the
Federalists of Salisbury. 1

Tradition says that Webster's first argument after his
admission to the bar was made before a justice of the peace
"Old Justice Jackman, who received his commission from
George II." Webster himself once wrote that his first speech
before a jury was made when his father was on the bench, and
added, "He never heard me a second time/* 2 Apparently
this plea was made in September 1805, at the court house in
Plymouth, the county seat of Grafton County, during a session
of the Court of Common Pleas. 3 General Lyman, who visited

1 Letter to Ezekiel Webster, July 28, 1805 (National Edition, XVII, 213).

2 Letter to Blatchford, May 3, 1846 (Bid. y XVIII, 228).

8 Mr. Alfred Russell, writing in 1853, a ^ ter some exhaustive researches, declared that
Webster's first case was tried before the Superior Court, in Plymouth, with Chief
Justice Jeremiah Smith presiding. In view of the fact that Webster was not admitted
to practice before the Superior Court until May 1807, this version seems improbable.
Furthermore, Captain Webster could not have sat on the bench of the Superior Court,
being only a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

88 DANIEL WEBSTER

Plymouth in 1852, met several older people who remembered
the case and the part which Webster took in it; and Joel
Parker said that it was an action founded on a tavern bill*
amounting to twenty-four dollars,, seventeen dollars of which
Webster recovered for his client. In his Address at the Webster
Centennial at Dartmouth College^ David Cross, a New Hamp-
shire lawyer and judge, asserted that, according to the records,
Webster* at the September Term, in 1805, of the Superior
Court of Hillsborough County, entered at Hopkinton twenty-
two writs and argued two causes before a jury. 1 One of these
was Haddock v. Woodward^ which he won; the other was
Carson v. Corson y which he lost. The opposing counsel in
both suits was Webster's friend, Parker Noyes, whom he had
known in Thompson's office at Salisbury. 2 Jacob McGaw,
usually a trustworthy witness, described a case in Grafton
County involving the trial for murder of a man who had
once worked for Captain Webster. Daniel Webster, then
attending the court, went to see the prisoner, who implored
him to lend what aid he could give to his counsel, Mr. Sprague.
The latter, convinced of the guilt of his client, declined to
represent him; and Webster, stepping forward, made "an
argument of such wonderful force and ingenuity, that all who
heard him were astonished,'* and Chief Justice Smith was
lavish in his encomiums. 3 Another interesting trial was that
of "Old Man Hodgdon," of Northfield, who had been accused
of stealing a saddle. Webster, for the defense, showed that his
client was the victim of a conspiracy, and that the real criminal
had hidden the saddle behind Hodgdon's chimney.
Though it is difficult to prove the truth of some of these

1 Webster Centennial Proceedings^ p. 248. Cross also said that these cases were
argued " in the presence of his father, one of the judges upon the bench," but this is
obviously an error, for Captain Webster was never a Judge of the Superior Court. The
original writs in these cases are on file in the Court House at Nashua, New Hampshire.

2 Parker Noyes (1776-1852), of South Hampton, New Hampshire, studied law with
Thomas W. Thompson and became his partner in 1804, after marrying Thompson's
daughter. In 1 8 10, when Thompson moved to Concord, Noyes bought out his business,
and later took one of his pupils, George W. Nesmith, as a partner. He held a high rank
at the New Hampshire bar.

3 National Edition, XVII, 52.

MATURING YEARS %

tales, there can be no doubt of the lasting impression which
Webster, at this early period of his career, made on com-
petent critics. Chief Justice Joel Parker, of the New Hamp-
shire Court of Common Pleas, told of a brilliant argument
delivered by Webster in September 18065 which created a
sensation among his colleagues at the bar, and was the subject
of discussion for several days. 1 John H. Morison, in his
Life of Jeremiah Smithy described a suit for trespass tried in
Hopkinton at the May Term of the Superior Court in i8oy. 2
Webster, although associated with a Mr. Wilson as counsel
for the plaintiff, was not yet legally entitled to argue a case
in the Superior Court ; but, in view of the fact that he was
soon to be admitted, the Chief Justice allowed him to present
his cause. The scene which followed was depicted by Sheriff
Israel W. Kelley, of Concord, later Webster's brother-in-law :

When Mr. Webster began to speak, his voice was low, his head was
sunk upon his breast, and his eyes were fixed upon the floor, and he
moved his feet incessantly, backward and forward, as if trying to
secure a firmer position. His voice soon increased in power and
volume, till it filled the whole house. His attitude became erect, his
eye dilated, and his whole countenance was radiant with emotion.
The attention of all was at once arrested. Every eye in the crowded
court-room was fixed on the speaker but my own ; for I was obliged
to watch the door that I might prevent confusion by the throng of
spectators that were constantly crowding into the hall. 3

In May 1806, at Plymouth, Webster was assigned by the
court to defend one Josiah Burnham, charged with killing two
of his companions in the cell of the Haverhill jail, by stabbing
them with a weapon made from the point of a scythe. Web-
ster's plea was an argument against capital punishment, but
the jury brought in a verdict of "Guilty," and Burnham was
hanged, August 12, 1806, on Powder House Hill, near Haver-
hill, before a throng of ten thousand people. 4

1 Harvey, pp. 44-45*

2 Morison, Life of Jeremiah Smith* pp. 179-80.
8 Harvey, pp. 46-47.

4 Granite State Monthly ', IV, 101.

90 DANIEL WEBSTER

It makes little difference whether these stories are regarded
as truth or as fanciful legends. The fact underlying them
all is that Daniel Webster, even as a young lawyer, made
himself respected and feared. 1 1 was during this period that he
first encountered the redoubtable Jeremiah Mason/ later his
intimate friend and associate. Mason who told the story
to Webster's biographer* George Ticknor Curtis was asked
to defend a hitherto respectable citizen who had been in-
dicted for forgery. The action was to be tried in one of the
counties in which Webster practised, and he had been asked
by the Attorney-General to prepare the argument for the
prosecution. Mason had heard vague rumors of a wonder-
fully clever young country lawyer, said to be "as black as the
ace of spades/" but had never been brought into contact with
him. On the day of the trial, the Attorney-General was ill,
and the prosecutors, with Mason's consent, placed the case
in Webster's hands. The unknown Boscawen lawyer con-

1 Jeremiah Mason (1768-1848), born at Lebanon, Connecticut, was the sixth of nine
children of Jeremiah Mason, all but one of whom lived to maturity. His father, like
Webster's, was a farmer, a Revolutionary veteran, and a member of the state legislature.
Mason graduated from Yale in 1788, studied law at New Haven under Simeon Baldwin
for a year, and then at Westminster, Vermont, under General Stephen R. Bradley for
eighteen months, and was admitted to the Vermont bar at New Fane in June 1791.
He settled in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, in the following autumn, moving in 1794
to Walpole, six miles up the Connecticut, and in 1797 to Portsmouth, where he soon
rose to the head of his profession. We are told that, from 1805 to 1808, the number of
original entries made by him at any court session was usually more than those of all the
other attorneys in Portsmouth together. He married, November 9, 1799, Mary Means,
daughter of Robert Means, of Amherst, New Hampshire. He was six feet, seven inches,
in height, and she was so short that she often tied her handkerchief to his wrist so that
she could reach it. In 1802, Mason was made Attorney-General of New Hampshire,
but held the office only three years. Elected to the United States Senate in June 1813,
as a Federalist, he associated himself with colleagues of similar political principles,
such as Rufus King and Christopher Gore ; but he wearied of the office and resigned
his seat in 1817. It was his only service in Congress. His stooped shoulders and
rather awkward manner made him seem at first glance rather sluggish, and his face,
except for his keen and vigilant eyes, looked heavy. But once stirred to action, he
was transformed. He was, in the courtroom, simple and direct, using homely phrases
and a provincial pronunciation and speaking without gestures ; but he had Yankee
shrewdness and common sense, and he was so lucid that nobody ever failed to under-
stand him. Unlike Webster, he was not a wide general reader, but devoted himself
entirely to his profession. As a lawyer, he compelled his opponents to do their best,
for no one arguing against him could be negligent or superficial. Like Rufus Choate,
he did not really care for politics, and was always glad to get back to his office desk.
See the Dictionary of American Biography.

5 ai

MATURING YEARS gi

ducted the proceedings in a masterly manner. "He broke
upon me like a thunder storm in July/' confessed Mason,
"sudden, portentous, sweeping all before it.** Surprised by
this "remarkable exhibition of unexpected power/* Mason was
barely able to save his client, and he had from that time forth a
wholesome regard for Webster's prowess. 1 It was not to be
long before the two were to meet as professional rivals in the
same community; and Mason, with the generosity and lack
of jealousy which were among his many admirable characteris-
tics, never ceased to encourage his younger friend to enter a
broader field. "I never lost sight of Mr. Webster/' he said,
"and never had but one opinion of his powers."

Some meagre traditions still remain of Webster's life in
Boscawen. It is said that he organized a voluntary military
company, recruited chiefly from a group of men employed in
manufacturing barrel staves at a local coopering establishment,
and that these soldiers, with hoop-poles for weapons, used to
march up and down King Street to the music of fife and drum. 2
He took some interest in town affairs, enrolled himself as a
member of the religious society, voted at town meeting, and
served on the school committee. But he viewed his residence
in Boscawen as only temporary, and, on his occasional trips
to Boston and Portsmouth, he looked enviously and eagerly
upon those larger communities, where there was more life and
more scope for his talents. Scrupulously and uncomplainingly
he was keeping his bargain with his father.

Ebenezer Webster, after several months of failing strength,
died on April 22, 1806, and was buried in the little cemetery
at The Elms, only a short distance from the Merrimack. In
tribute to him, Webster wrote in 1846 :

1 This story is told in Curtis, I, 77, and also in Hillard, Life of Mason, p. 41. Still
another version is quoted in Lodge's Daniel Webster, pp. 39-40, in which the case is
spoken of as a " murder trial." Additional details are preserved in Harvey, pp. 58-59,
where the offense of the prisoner is described as " passing counterfeit money.'* I have
been unable to find the case reported in any of the newspapers of the period.

2 Coffin, Boscawen and Webster, pp. 446-47. If this story is authentic, it is almost
the only indication throughout Webster's career of a relish for military distinction.
He was later opposed on principle to the War of 1812 and to the Mexican War.

92 DANIEL WEBSTER

I neither left him nor forsook him. My opening an office in Bos-
cawen was that I might be near him. I closed his eyes in this very
house. He died at sixty-seven years of age, after a life of exertion,
toil, and exposure : a private soldier, an officer, a legislator, a judge,
everything that a man could be to whom learning never had disclosed
her " ample page/* l

Daniel, who had already paid out large sums for his father/
now assumed his debts/ and undertook to supply money also
for the living expenses of his mother and sisters. 4 Meanwhile
Ezekiel had been reading law in the office of James Sullivan,
later Governor of Massachusetts for two terms, in Boston,
and with Parker Noyes, in Salisbury. Admitted to the New
Hampshire bar In September 1807, he took over almost im-
mediately) by agreement with Daniel, the latter's office in
Boscawen, and also became manager of the family farm at
the Lower Village, The important facts about these arrange-
ments were written from Portsmouth by Daniel to Bingham :

The truth is, our family affairs at Salisbury rendered it necessary
for one of us to reside in that neighborhood, and not very willing to
take charge of the farm, I concluded to indorse over to my brother
both farm and office, if he would take them both together. Being
thus left to seek a new place of abode, I came to this town, a measure
which I had in some degree contemplated for a length of time. I
found myself here in the latter part of September. I knew few
people here, and Mr. Adams was the only person who advised the
measure. 5

Thus suddenly precipitated by Fate into a new community,
Ezekiel Webster, a man of exceptional ability, soon adjusted
himself to his environment, made for himself a distinguished
career as a lawyer, and became Boscawen's leading citizen.

1 National Edition, XVIII, 229. 2 Hid., XVI, 8.

* According to George Ticknor, quoted in Curtis, I, 78, Webster did not entirely pay
off his father's obligations until 1817.

4 Webster's youngest sister, Sarah Jane, died of consumption on March 19, 1811.
His older sister, Mehitable, died on July 4, 1814, thus leaving the mother absolutely
alone on the farm. Mrs. Ebenezer Webster, after spending her last days with her son,
Ezekiel, at Boscawen, finally died on April 25, 1816, almost exactly ten years after her
husband, and was buried by his side.

5 Letter to Bingham, February 27, 1808 (National Edition, XVII, 228).

MATURING YEARS 93

He married and built for his family a beautiful home* with
attractive gardens ; and, when he died very suddenly, at the
age of forty-nine, he was buried in the lovely old Boscawen
Cemetery, on a slope above the Merrimack.

Daniel Webster was admitted in May 1807 as Counselor in
the Superior Court of New Hampshire; and, with Ezeklel
comfortably established in Boscawen, he transferred in Septem-
ber all his belongings to Portsmouth, where he hoped, against
keener competition, to make a name for himself in the law.

IV
A WIDER HORIZON: WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH

I lived in Portsmouth nine years, wanting one month. They were very

happy years.

WEBSTER, Autobiography

Should we meet the flitting ghost of some old-time worthy, on a staircase
or at a lonely street corner, the reader musf be prepared for it.

ALDRICH, An Old Town by the Sea

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire, on the south bank of the
Piscataqua River, was, in 1807, a place of some consequence.
Settled first In 162,3, it had acquired by the close of the eight-
eenth century a population of more than five thousand and was
twelfth among the cities of the United States. It had the only
harbor and was the largest city in New Hampshire, surpassing
both Exeter and Concord in wealth and number of people, 1
and it was quite able to hold its own in commerce with its
Massachusetts rivals, Salem and Newburyport. There was
an insignificant village called Hooksett, near what was to be the
cosmopolitan industrial centre of Manchester, and there was a
sparse settlement at Watanic, on the site of what to-day is
Nashua. But manufacturing had not yet contaminated the
valley of the Merrimack, and the sea was still the most impor-
tant factor in New England's prosperity.

It was in Portsmouth that the earliest newspaper in the
state the New Hampshire Gazette was started in 1756.
Portsmouth had been the colonial capital of New Hampshire
until patriots during the Revolution moved the seat of govern-
ment inland to Exeter. 2 In Market Square Portsmouth's

1 Belknap's History of New Hampshire gives the population statistics for 1790 as
follows: Portsmouth, 4720; Concord, 1747; Exeter, 1722.

2 From 1775 to 1807, tn Legislature adjourned from town to town, sometimes to
Portsmouth, and often to Exeter and Concord. At the close of the first session in 1807,
it adjourned to Concord, which has since been the capital.

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 95

Place de la Concorde was the Old State House, the scene
of many public demonstrations, on the eastern balcony of
which President George Washington was welcomed In 1789.
Towards the eastern end of the Square was the town pump,
long used as a whipping post ; and at the south was the broad
plaza known as the "Parade/* where processions were formed
and the citizens promenaded on summer evenings. On
Vaughan Street could be seen the Assembly House/ where
Portsmouth's "four hundred" gathered for dancing parties
and musicales, and where Washington, attending a ball, found
"about seventy-five well-dressed and many very handsome
ladies."

Everywhere, in the Portsmouth of 1807, there were evi-
dences of prosperity. It boasted, in 1798, 626 dwelling houses,
of which, however, only sixteen were of three stories. On
nearly every street was some stately mansion, with the gambrel
roof which dated it before the Revolution. At a later period
had come the great, square three-storied residences, usually of
wood, but giving the impression of substantiality and filled
with furniture which now makes the antique hunter's heart
ache with envy. These houses reflected the good taste of the
shipowners and superannuated sea captains, who, retiring with
a competence, had established them as a refuge for their old
age. Such were many of the landmarks for which Portsmouth
is famous : the Warner House, the brick for the eigh teen-inch
walls of which was imported from Holland ; the Moffatt House,
once the wonder of the town, and now the property of the New
Hampshire Society of the Colonial Dames of America ; and
the truly noble Governor Langdon Mansion, where Washing-
ton dined and where such dignitaries as Louis Philippe and
James Monroe were guests. All these, and many others almost
as beautiful, were familiar sights to Daniel Webster as he
strolled about the streets. Most of them stood some yards
back from the flagstone sidewalks, and behind them were
attractive gardens, colorful in the right season with lilacs and

1 The Assembly" House was altered in 1838, and now constitutes two separate build-
ings, one on either side of Raitt's Court

96 DANIEL WEBSTER

roses and dahlias, and here and there a small orchard laden
with blossoms or fruit. There was not a ramble along a side
avenue which did not open some unexpected vista full of old-
world charm.

The Portsmouth of the early nineteenth century, however,
was a hustling community, more interested in its present than
in its past. Along the wharves, there was abundant activity,
as cargoes were unloaded or sailors wandered back and forth
from vessels to taprooms. Aldrich, in sentimental reminis-
cence, has said :

At the windows of these musty countingrooms which overlook the
river near Spring Market used to stand portly merchants, in knee-
breeches and silver shoe-buckles and plum-colored coats with ruffles
at the wrists, waiting for their ships to come up the Narrows ; the
cries of the stevedores and the chants of sailors at the windlass used
to echo along the shore where all is silent now.

The unmistakable aroma of the sea a pleasing blend of
brine and tar permeated the atmosphere, and the ships
returning from distant India or China gave it an exotic flavor,
quite different from that of inland cities. There were taverns
for the stranger, ready to cater to his needs : Mr. John Staver's
Earl of Halifax, from which the first stage set out for Boston
in 1761 and the name of which was discreetly changed by the
proprietor during the Revolution to the William Pitt Tavern ;
the Bell, on a post in front of which hung a huge bell, painted
a gaudy blue, and at which the patriots had once held their
seditious meetings ; and Stoodley's, on the north side of Daniel
Street, which, in Webster's day, was the fashionable resort of
bucks and "bloods/*

Portsmouth was a comfortable town, rather complacent
and conservative, as befitted a community in which most of
the citizens were well-to-do, and very hospitable. Belknap,
writing in 1792, said, "In Portsmouth, there is as much elegance
and politeness of manners, as in any of the capital towns of
New England." l Webster, arriving there not long after the

1 The Marquis de Chastellux, a visitor in 1782, speaks of handsome women elegantly
dressed, and of rich houses beautifully furnished.

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 97

days of wigs and cocked hats and flowered waistcoats, found
a society quite self-sufficient and dependent on itself. It had
its eccentric characters, its legends of ghosts and witches, and
its mysterious tragedies, as any ancient place should have, and
its citizens had no envy of Philadelphia or New York.

Certainly an ambitious young lawyer might have chosen
many worse spots in which to seek his fortune. But, although
the residents of Portsmouth were only faintly aware of the nem-
esis descending upon them, its "golden days" were almost
over. For the moment it was flourishing, and Webster had
selected it in the belief that its future was as promising as that
of Boston. But the Embargo Act was soon to fall like a blight
upon its foreign trade, and the War of 1812 was to bring with
it an even greater decline in shipping. Webster reached there
just as the old Portsmouth of the days "before the war" was
to become a memory. To-day, the traveler is likely to think
of it, in Aldrich's phrase, as "An Old Town by the Sea," where
" the wormeaten wharves, some of them covered by a sparse,
unhealthy beard of grass, and the weather-stained, unoccupied
warehouses are sufficient to satisfy a moderate appetite for
antiquity." Portsmouth's prosperity, such as it is, is now of
another kind. There are factories, but they seem incongru-
ous with their surroundings. Even automobiles are not alto-
gether suited to the "Parade."

During the passage of a century or more, Portsmouth has
greatly changed. The old houses are still alluring, but in some
instances they resemble "the crumbling shells of things dead
and gone." Once-fashionable avenues are now the slums of
the city. Gracefully carved doorways have been damaged
by the hands of ignorant vandals. The former haunts of
fashion and luxury have been turned often to ignoble uses.
There is, of course, on the part of some older residents, an inter-
est in the past, but in the business quarter a new generation
has grown up or come in which is indifferent to traditions.
It is significant that there is no memorial to Webster in the
city.

The Portsmouth of 1807 was so small that the arrival of a

98 DANIEL WEBSTER

stranger especially a stranger like Daniel Webster aroused
the curiosity of its inhabitants. We are told by Mrs. Eliza
Buckminster Lee l that* when he first was seated next to the
minister's family in the Old North Church 3 called the " three-
decker " because of its tiers of galleries,, her eldest sister reported
"that there had been a remarkable person in the pew with
her, and that she was sure he had a most marked character for
good or for evil/' Mrs. Lee, describing him as he then
appeared, wrote :

Slender and apparently of delicate organization, his large eyes and
massive brow seemed very predominant above the other features,
which were sharply cut, refined, and delicate. The paleness of his
complexion was heightened by hair as black as the raven's wing. 2

This vivid sketch corresponds well with a miniature of
Webster painted at about this period, 3 but Mrs. Lee's empha-
sis on his "paleness" is inexplicable when we recall that every-
body else particularly mentions his swarthy hue. Mrs. Lee
added that her father, noticing that Webster's constitution
was not very robust, persuaded him to join him in sawing wood
for half an hour before breakfast each morning an exercise
which had beneficial results upon his physique. Before he left
Portsmouth, the slim and frail-looking young lawyer was in
excellent health and gradually acquiring the portly proportions
of his prime.

Having rented bachelor quarters not far from the Buckmin-
ster home, Webster was soon the centre of an admiring circle.

1 Eliza (Buckminster) Lee (1794-1864), one of Webster's best friends in Portsmouth
and in later life, was the sister of his former teacher at Exeter, the Reverend Joseph
Stevens Buckminster, and the daughter of Dr. Joseph Buckminster, pastor of the Old
North Church, in Portsmouth, for thirty-three years. She married Thomas Lee, of
Boston, and moved to that city, where she became well known as an author. In the
Old North Church, which stood on the west side of Market Square and has been replaced
by a more modern edifice on the same site, Webster had a pew, and he was a warden
there in 1815-16.

2 From an interesting reminiscent letter to Fletcher Webster, dated January 23,
1856, and printed in the National Edition, XVII, 438 ff.

3 A photograph of this miniature is reproduced in Fisher, p. 81, and shows Webster
with a face which was sharp and narrow, instead of broad and square, as it was in his
later days. The likeness between this and the pictures of his old age is, however,
unmistakable.

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 99

His clever imitations of peculiar people established his reputa-
tion as a mimic, and he had a charm of manner which was irre-
sistible. Thrown for the first time into a society which was
opulent and urbane, he was quick to adopt its tone. If
he had been hitherto a little uncertain about rules of eti-
quette, he rapidly learned how to play the game, and, mingling
with polished men and women, was accepted as one of them.
His letters, not numerous during these years, tell us little of his
experiences, but he did meet such Portsmouth personages as
the stately Governor John Langdon ; * Honorable Jonathan
Warner, who had been a member of His Majesty's Council
before the Revolution; Captain William Rice, the enterpris-
ing merchant who controlled a fleet of privateers in the War
of 1812 ; Honorable John Goddard, who had refused a nomina-
tion to the United States Senate ; and the astute Judge Samuel
Sherburne, who had served two terms in Congress, had been
appointed United States District Attorney, and had ended as
a judge of the Circuit Court. Association with men of culti-
vation, who had traveled widely, gave him a broader outlook
than had been his in provincial Boscawen. It was In Ports-
mouth that Webster gained poise and sophistication.

To the ladies of Portsmouth, Webster was not attracted, for
he had already made his choice of a life companion. Writing
to Merrill, March 8, 1807, he said :

I rejoice that you have so comfortable a cage. A bird you cannot
but find easily. Your friend Webster has neither bird nor cage.
However, he lives in hopes. 2

Within the next few months the hopes developed into reali-
ties, for he wrote, December 2, 1807 :

1 John Langdon (1741-1819) was perhaps the most picturesque figure in New Hamp-
shire politics at the opening of the nineteenth century. Born in Portsmouth, he fought
in the Revolution at Bennington and Saratoga, and became a prosperous merchant.
He was a member of the State Legislature and its Speaker; delegate to the Constitu-
tional Convention of 1787: Governor of New Hampshire (1788); Senator from New
Hampshire (1789-1801) and first President of the United States Senate; and again
Governor for five terms between 1805 and 1812. He was a strong Democrat, and
Jefferson offered him in 1801 a place in his cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, which he
refused. He also declined the Democratic nomination for Vice President in 18 13.

2 National Edition, XVII, 226.

ioo DANIEL WEBSTER

I have been a young dog long enough, and now think of joining
myself, as soon as convenient, to that happy and honorable society
of which you are one ; the society of married men. 1

The young lady on whom he had set his heart was Grace
Fletcher, daughter of the Reverend Elijah Fletcher, the minis-
ter of Hopkinton, about ten miles southwest of The Elms,
who had died, April 8, 1786, leaving four small children, of
whom Grace was the youngest. Mrs. Fletcher whose
maiden name was Rebecca Chamberlain had married again,
her second husband being the Reverend Christopher Paige,
also of Hopkinton, to whom she had borne three sons and
one daughter. 2 Grace Fletcher, after graduating at Atkinson
Academy in 1800, had been intermittently a school teacher, for
a time at Boscawen, and, in 1805, at Salisbury. Her older
sister, Rebecca, had married Judge Israel W. Kelley, of Salis-
bury, in whose home Grace lived when employed in that vicin-
ity. It is said that Webster saw her first at church in Salis-
bury, when she wore a tight-fitting dress and looked "like an
angel/' s He did not find it difficult to carry on a courtship,
for Judge Kelley lived at Salisbury Center Village, only a few
miles from Boscawen.

Some sort of understanding must have been reached between
Webster and Grace Fletcher before he moved to Portsmouth.
In the late spring of 1808, he rode away from his bachelor's
headquarters without notifying anyone of his destination, and,

1 National Edition, XVII, p. 227.

2 Mrs. Paige's third son, James W. Paige, Esquire, who first met Webster in 1807 at
the Paige house, later became one of his close friends. He was afterwards a prosperous
merchant in Boston and was named as one of the trustees under Webster's will. A
considerable correspondence, chiefly on matters of business, was carried on between the
two. Paige died, May 19, 1868, in Boston.

3 According to the story told by William T. Davis in an article, " Memories of Daniel
Webster " (New England Magazine, April 1902), Rebecca Kelley on one Sunday morn-
ing told Grace not to dress up for church, as it was stormy, and no one would be there
for whom she cared. When she returned home, she said, " I did see some one, a man
with a black head, who looked as if he might be somebody." The stranger was Webster.
The earliest reference to Grace Fletcher in Webster's correspondence is in a letter from
Ezekiel to Daniel, from Boston, July 10, 1805, in which he asks, " Is Grace in Salisbury,
and is B. attentive to her ? "

- if >

/, sO&v^M^t.s^^

'^^M^^^^^^^^^'^^

THE ENTRY OF DANIEL WEBSTER'S MARRIAGE IN
THE SALISBURY CHURCH RECORDS

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 101

on Sunday, May 29,* he was married to her at Judge Kelley's
house, "in the middle west room/' by the Reverend
Thomas Worcester. 2 Mrs. Webster was a year and two days
older than her husband, having been born on January 16, 1781,
in Hopkinton. Judging from her portrait by Chester Harding,
she could not have been beautiful, but she was attractive in
manner and habitually amiable. 3 Although she was physi-
cally not strong, she possessed a brilliant mind and was a con-
genial companion for her husband, who relied much upon her
judgment. She seems to have been quite equal to the social
demands made upon her, and she preserved a dignified com-
posure, not only in Portsmouth, but also in the more exacting
drawing-rooms of Boston and Washington. George Ticknor,
who saw much of the Websters in Portsmouth, wrote, " Mrs.
Webster was pleasing and animated, and her manner to the
friends of her husband, and to us young men, was very kind
and cordial." 4

After his marriage, Webster rented a house on Vaughan
Street, which had formerly been occupied by his friend, Jere-
miah Mason. 5 This dwelling, which is still standing as "Num-
ber 137," was built in 1760 by George Meserve, and had been
Mason's home from 1800 to 1808. It was a pleasant resi-

1 The date given by Webster in his formal Autobiography is June 24, which is
obviously incorrect. Dearborn's History of Salisbury says that the marriage took place
on May 29, 1808, which fell on a Sunday, The Salisbury Church records give the
date as May 29.

2 Dr. Worcester came to Salisbury in 1791, as Parson Searle's successor in the church
at Salisbury Center Village. To this church, Daniel Webster had been united while
still a young man, but the date, September 13, 1807, given in Dearborn's History, is
probably a misprint for September 13, 1797.

3 Mrs. Lee, writing to Fletcher Webster regarding his mother, said, " Uniting with
great sweetness of disposition, unaffected, frank and winning manners, you will readily
believe that no one could approach your mother without wishing to know her, and no
one could know her well, without loving her." (National Edition, XVII, 440.)

4 Quoted by Curtis, I, 85.

5 With his increased income, Mason had built, in 1808, a large three-storied house on
the southeast corner of State and Summer Streets, in a location which was then thought
to be very secluded, although it was not more than a third of a mile from Market Square.
It was an imposing mansion, enclosed by a white fence, and with an orchard and exten-
sive gardens, in which he took much pride. It is still standing to-day, very little
altered, and occupied by a member of the Treadwell family, into whose possession it
came after Mason left Portsmouth, in 1832.

DANIEL WEBSTER

dence, with a gambrel roof, and behind it was a garden extend-
ing south to School Street. Diagonally opposite, on the west
side of Vaughan Street, was the Assembly House, where the
beaux and belles of Portsmouth held their balls. The place
was centrally located, only a short distance from the business
centre, and in what was then considered to be a desirable
locality. 1

Exactly how long Webster remained in the Vaughan Street
house it is impossible to say, but we do know that he soon pur-
chased for six thousand dollars what George Ticknor called
"a small, modest, wooden house/' on the northwest corner
of Court and Pleasant Streets, only two blocks from Market
Square. 2 It was of the same size and arrangement as the
Reverend Samuel Langdon House, only a short distance away
on Pleasant Street, just north of the Universalist Church, and,
like it, was two stories in height, with a gambrel roof and twin
chimneys, and two windows on either side of the front door.
Separating it from the street was a fence, with carved posts
at the gateway leading to the entrance. It was to a room in
this dwelling that Mrs. Lee referred when she wrote, "There
certainly was never a more charming room than the low-roofed
simple parlor, where, relieved from the cares of business, in
the full gayety of his disposition, he gave himself up to relaxa-

1 The changes in Portsmouth during the past century can be Illustrated in no better
way than by the story of the evolution of this once fine dwelling. It is difficult to trace
all its various owners after the Websters left it; but it came, in 1839, into the hands of
Robert Gray, by whom it was well kept up and in whose family it long remained. In
the late nineteenth century it was purchased by two men who were indifferent to its
beauty and who, after removing the charming interior stairway and much of the
exquisite woodwork, had the ground floor remodeled for stores. One side is now
occupied by a Food Shop and the other by a Pool Room; while the second story is
rented for apartments, A giant sassafras tree, said to have been the oldest in New
Hampshire, was ruthlessly cut down about 1918 in order to make room for a lunch cart.
Not many people in Portsmouth have any idea that it was once Webster's home ; but
the Assembly House, across the street, is marked by a tablet commemorating Washing-
ton's appearance there at a ball in 1789.

2 General Lyman, perhaps ignorant of the house in Vaughan Street, wrote : "When
Mr. Webster went to Portsmouth to reside with his wife, they took lodgings at the house
of a widow lady, where they resided some time, and were regarded as the proprietors
of the establishment, he paying all the expenses. At last he bought the house, furniture
and all pertaining to it, and had just paid for it, when it took fire and was burned to
ashes." (Lyman, II, 38.)

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 103

tion." l Unfortunately, it was consumed in the great confla-
gration of December i8i3, 2 while Webster was in Washington,
and when he returned, in the following spring, he moved his
family into a third house, on High Street, still in existence,
although a large addition has since been constructed in the
rear. The original portion, as Webster knew it, is in excellent
condition. 3 The east room on the ground floor, opening on
High Street, is about fourteen by eighteen feet in dimensions,
with a ceiling approximately nine feet high, and four windows.
The only other room on this floor must have been used as both
dining-room and kitchen, although it is possible that there may
have been a small wing at the back in which cooking was done.
There were two large bedrooms on the second floor. This
four-room dwelling was certainly no very pretentious habita-
tion for a Congressman.

Webster's domestic affairs in Portsmouth were happy and
untroubled. Two children were born to him there: Grace
Fletcher Webster, born April 29, 1810, and described by Tick-
nor as "a child of uncommon intelligence, with a brilliant red
and white complexion, and deep-set eyes, and hair as black
as her father's " ; 4 and Daniel Fletcher Webster, born July 23,
1813 The preference of both Webster and his wife was for
simple pleasures, and, although they sometimes attended
elaborate social functions, they did not entertain lavishly them-
selves. Instead, Webster would sit in the evening in his
parlor, "a bright and cheerful room/' and read the plays of
Shakespeare to friends who chanced to drop in.

Webster's office, during the greater part of his residence in
Portsmouth, was on the west side of Market Street, only two
or three doors from the square, in the second story over what
is to-day Peyser's clothing store. The rooms which he once

1 National Edition, XVII, 441.

2 The site of the Webster house is now occupied by an ugly three-story tenement,
painted brown, and quite out of place in the vicinity of the beautiful residences near it.

8 The building is still called " Webster House," and is used as a boarding house at
58 High Street.

4 Quoted in Curtis, I, 85. This child was born while Webster was attending court
at Hopkinton (National Edition, XIII, 549).

io 4 DANIEL WEBSTER

occupied are now utilized by the job-printing establishment
of Richard I. Walden, and have been somewhat remodeled;
but there are closets which look much as they did in Webster's
time. The only description which we have is from the pen of
George Ticknor, who wrote :

His office was a common, ordinary-looking room, with less furniture
and more books than common. He had a small inner room, opening
from the larger, rather an unusual thing. 1

This office was only a short distance from the houses in which
he lived. It was but slightly over one hundred yards, for in-
stance, from his third residence, on High Street, to his place of
business. From its windows, Webster could look into Market
Square, and he could easily be reached by anyone in need of
legal counsel.

The practice upon which Daniel Webster now entered was,
after a few weeks, of a size to demand his careful attention. 2
His reputation as a pleader had preceded him, and clients
flocked to his door. Like every attorney of that era, he spent
much time in the collection of small debts on a commission
an occupation which was neither uplifting nor profitable. But
he was able to write Bingham :

I have done as much business as I ought to expect. There are
eight or nine of us who fill writs, in town. Of course my share cannot
be large even if I should take my equal dividend. On the whole, how-
ever, I am satisfied that I did right to come, and suppose shall meet
with as much success as I deserve. 3

It was not long before Webster was making almost two
thousand dollars a year a considerable income for a young
man who did not know what it was to be free from debt and
who had been glad, at Boscawen, when he could count on five

1 Curtis, I, 85.

2 According"to Harvey, p. 51, Webster wrote in the fall of 1807 : " Thursday I tarried
in Concord ; Friday I came to this place j Saturday I got my office swept and my books
put up, and this week I have been quite at leisure."

'Letter to Bingham, February 27, 1808 (National Edition, XVII, 228).

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 105

hundred dollars annually. 1 Much of his professional work
was carried on by following the sessions of the Superior Court
through the state, as Lincoln did thirty years later in Illinois.
New Hampshire was then divided into six counties, five of
which Rockingham (in which Portsmouth was located),
Strafford, Graf ton, Hillsborough, and Cheshire had been
named by Governor John Wentworth for his friends among the
English nobility. The sixth Coos had been split off from
Grafton in 1803. Sessions of the court were held at the vari-
ous "shire" towns, and brought about an intimate associa-
tion of both lawyers and judges. By chaise in summer and by
sleigh in winter, Webster traveled with "his colleagues and
rivals from one centre to another in Rockingham, Grafton, and
Hillsborough Counties, coming back to Portsmouth whenever
possible for week-ends, but often detained from home for long
periods by bad weather or rush of business. He slept at
uncomfortable inns, ate unpalatable food, and endured all the
trying vicissitudes of the New England climate.

Meanwhile, he was being subjected to a discipline at which
he may sometimes have revolted, but which tested his mettle
and brought out all his latent powers. To the people in the
vicinity, the court sessions were dramas, eagerly anticipated
and largely attended. Every important trial was a tourna-
ment in which champions were matched against each other,
and farmers drove in from all the surrounding country to hear
a case argued by two famous advocates. Under these condi-
tions, lawyers were always tense and eager, and the one who
did well was sure of congratulations in the evening as he sat
with his fellows around the dinner table. Novitiates, through
this system, had the opportunity of listening day after day to
masters of their art. 2 Facing each morning a new problem,

1 By May 5, 1808, Webster could write Bingham : " I have nothing to charge against
fortune, on the score of professional success, and yet have nothing to boast, beyond the
ordinary success of young men. I am earning a small living, and have long been con-
vinced that I shall never be rich." (National Edition, XVII, 230.) In 1813, he wrote
that from 80 to 100 cases a term originated in his office. (/*//., XVI, 671.)

2 Senator George F. Hoar, recollecting the circuit system, wrote, " I cannot but
think that the listening to the trial and argument of cases by skillful advocates was a
better law school than any We have now." (Autobiography of Seventy Years, II, 368.)

106 DANIEL WEBSTER

Webster had to acquire the faculty of adjusting himself quickly
to changed conditions. It was obviously impracticable for a
lawyer on the circuit to carry with him a large library, and
books were seldom to be found in the towns where court was
held. Under the circumstances, a skillful pleader found him-
self relying, not on precedents, but on his wits, and victory
usually fell, not to him who knew the most, but to him who
could reason best and think most rapidly on his feet. There
was no opportunity for a lawyer to demur or delay. 1 He had
to prepare his case for jury or court in a hurry, under a pressure
which was unfavorable to calm scrutiny of the facts. In this
never-ending competition month after month, a man's true
ability was bound to be disclosed, for he had either to hold his
own in the rough-and-tumble intellectual battle or drop out.
Webster did not drop out. Indeed, it was not long before the
popular judgment placed him on a parity with the great
miracle-worker, Jeremiah Mason, whose "Titanic bulk and
elephantine movement" made him conspicuous wherever
members of the bar were assembled.

No one can study the legal career of Webster without con-
cluding that his obligation to Jeremiah Mason was very great.
In his earlier appearances in the courtroom, Webster, not yet
cured of the sophomoric tendencies shown in his college ora-
tions, had been rhetorical and even bombastic. 2 He had
formed the insidious habit of using words merely because of
their sound, and his sentences were too heavily freighted with
ornamentation. It was hard for him, as it was for so many of
his contemporaries, to resist the lure of "fine writing." Now
Jeremiah Mason, a shrewd Yankee, had evolved a style which
had no "frills," but was above all plain and direct. He wasted
no words, but aimed to become intimate with each member

1 " In his earlier years in circuit practice, Lincoln and other travelling attorneys were
employed by clients as soon as the Judge and his legal retinue arrived. ... A bill in
chancery, an answer, a demurrer, special pleas, and the like would have to be deter-
mined and prepared * before the opening of the court the next morning. 1 " (Beveridge,
Abraham Lincoln^ I, 518.) Such was substantially the procedure in Webster's day.

2 William Plumer, the elder, thought Webster, as a young man, to be " too excursive
and declamatory," and this criticism is sustained by the recollections of other New
Hampshire lawyers.

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 107

of the jury and to address them in a language which they could
comprehend. He even assumed a provincial accent and a
homeliness of phrasing in order to make rural jurymen feel at
ease. Webster, who was his own severest critic, soon perceived
the art behind Mason's apparent simplicity and began himself
to experiment with those short., incisive sentences for which he
was to become notable. As he watched and heard Mason, his
respect for the latter's technique increased, and he left a
permanent acknowledgment of his indebtedness in a passage
frequently cited: "Mason's method of argument led me to
study my own style and set about reforming it." In his
Autobiography, furthermore, Webster recorded his mature
estimate of Mason's ability :

He has been of infinite advantage to me, not only by his unvarying
friendship, but by the many good lessons he has taught, and the
example he set me in the commencement of my career. If there be
in the country a stronger intellect, if there be a mind of more native
resources, if there be a vision that sees quicker, or sees deeper into
whatever is intricate, or whatsoever is profound, I must confess I
have not known it. 1

It was not merely Mason's choice of words which had its
influence upon Webster. Devoted whole-heartedly to his law
practice and indifferent to social advancement or public honors,
Mason prepared himself for each legal battle as a general girds
himself for an attack. His round face and rather sleepy eye-
lids did not seem to indicate persistence, but he had a resolute
mouth. He was usually courteous to opponents, but, when
stung, he could be almost savage, and Webster testified that
his sarcasm was "not frothy or petulant, but cool and vitriolic."
Pitted against such a foe, Webster was obliged to marshal
all his resources. Once, in conversation with Rufus Choate,
Webster said with unmistakable sincerity :

I regard Jeremiah Mason as eminently superior to any other lawyer
whom I have ever met. I would rather, with my own experience
(and I have had some pretty tough experience with him), meet them
all combined in a case than to meet him alone and single-handed* He

1 National Edition, XVII, 24.

io8 DANIEL WEBSTER

was about the keenest lawyer I ever met or read about. If a man had
Jeremiah Mason and he did not get his case, no human ingenuity or
learning could get it. 1

Such unsought testimony as this, even allowing for Webster's
expansive generosity of spirit, has a genuine ring to it It is
supplemented, moreover, by a paragraph in a letter from him
to Mason, February 27, 1830, long after he had left Ports-
mouth :

I have been written to, to go to New Hampshire to try a cause
against you next August, brought by Mrs. Mellen v* Dover Company.
Where is the August Court holden ? I suppose up at the Lakes. If it
were an easy and plain case on our side, I might be willing to go ; but
I have some of your pounding in my bones yet, and don't care about
any more till that wears out. 2

Mason, in his turn, repeatedly praised the genius of his
younger rival. The truth is that each of these legal giants had
a wholesome respect for the other. The story has often been
told of the litigant who called on Webster to retain him in a
case. Webster was already engaged on the other side, but
recommended Mason. "What do you think of Mr. Mason ?"
was the query. "I think him second to no man in the coun-
try," was Webster's prompt reply. The man then went to
Mason and asked him about Webster's ability. "He's the
very devil in any case whatever," responded Mason, "and, if
he 's against you, I beg to be excused." 3

The two were soon dividing most of the really desirable legal
work in Portsmouth and vicinity, and were retained on oppo-
site sides "pretty much as a matter of course" to quote

1 Quoted by David Cross at the Webster Centennial of Dartmouth College in 1901.
See Proceedings of the Webster Centennial^ p. 251. Towards the close of his life, Webster
confessed to a friend, "If you were to ask me who was the greatest lawyer in the country,
I should answer, John Marshall, but if you took me by the throat and pinned me to the
wall and demanded my real opinion, I should be compelled to say it was Jeremiah
Mason."

2 National Edition, XVII, 489.

3 The difference between Webster and Mason was once expressed with some accuracy
in the sentence : " Mr. Mason was a great lawyer; but Mr. Webster was a great man
practising law."

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 109

Webster's own words. 1 Thrown together on their travels
around the circuit, they discovered congenial tastes and soon
formed the practice of driving side by side in a chaise, with their
luggage in a trunk strapped under the vehicle ; and they shared
the same room at taverns and boarding houses. Only once is
any friction between them mentioned. Something having
exasperated Mason in the courtroom, he turned upon Webster
"with the ferocity of a tiger/' and assailed him with the wither-
ing sarcasm of which, under provocation, he was capable.
While Webster was telling his wife of the incident, Mason's
servant was announced and said that his master would be glad
to see Webster at his office. When they met, Mason greeted
him cordially, saying, "I was irritated about something when
my eye fell on you, and I vented my feelings in the way I did.
Don't think of it, for I meant nothing of the sort." 2

We have a contemporary judgment of Webster from the
pen of William Plumer, 3 the younger, at that time a staunch
Democrat and opposed to him in politics. In an entry in his
Diary for August 1810, Plumer, then a law student in Ports-
mouth, wrote of Webster :

As a speaker merely he is perhaps the best at the bar. His language
is correct, his gestures good; and his delivery slow, articulate, and
distinct. He excels in the statement of facts ; but he is not thought
to be a deep-read lawyer. His manners are not pleasing, being
haughty, cold, and overbearing. 4

Looking back from the perspective of forty years, Plumer
could recall that Webster's demeanor was, like Cardinal

1 National Edition, XVII, 24.

2 Harvey, p. 60.

8 William Plumer (1789-1854), not to be confused with his father, Governor
William Plumer, after graduating from Harvard in 1809, studied law with his father
and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He was elected to Congress in 1818 and served
three terms. He became an ardent abolitionist, and vigorously opposed the admission
of Missouri as a slave state. Later he sat in the New Hampshire Senate (1827-28),
and was a member of the state Constitutional Convention of 1 850. His letter to George
Ticknor, written on April 2, 1853, and published in the National Edition, XVII, 546-47,
is an important contribution to Websteriana, although Plumer was not altogether in
sympathy with Webster and his views on current questions.

4 National Edition, XVII, 546-47.

no DANIEL WEBSTER

Wolsey'sj "lofty and sour to those that loved him not/' and
he quoted Dr. John Goddard, one of the most extreme of New
Hampshire Republicans, as having said, "Webster has talent
equal to any office ; but he is as malignant as Robespierre, and
not less tyrannical." It was Plumer's father Governor
William Plumer, 1 who on one occasion triumphed over the
arrogance of young Webster. During a trial in which they
were engaged in opposite sides, Plumer quoted from Peake's
Law of Evidence; whereupon Webster criticized the passage
for its wretched logic, denounced the book as worthless, and
then, casting it to the floor in his lordly way, said contemp-
tuously, "So much for Mr. Thomas Peake's compendium of
the Law of Evidence !" Then Plumer, who was too old a hand
to be disconcerted, produced a volume of Reports, from which
it appeared that the paragraph which Webster had rejected
with such disdain was taken word for word from a decision by
the great Lord Mansfield. Thus he secured his vindication. 2
There are other stories to prove that Webster, in his early days
at Portsmouth, was sometimes unceremonious and even rude,
not having yet attained the solemn courtesy which was later
ohe of his distinctive mannerisms. It may be that the adula-
tion of his admirers had temporarily turned his head.

Of the law cases with which Webster was concerned while
at Portsmouth, not much can be learned; but there were
situations in which he seemed to be inspired. One of these
was the dramatic trial of a wealthy resident of Portsmouth
named Matthew Bramble, who had attempted to swindle a
poor shoemaker named Brown out of an annuity of one hun-

1 William Plumer (1759-1850), born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, was at the
age of eight taken by his family to Epping, New Hampshire, received there a public-
school education, and was admitted to the bar in 1787. He served in the Legislature
for eight terms, during two of them as Speaker, and he was President of the
State Senate in 1810-11. Elected United States Senator in 1802 to fill a vacancy, he
remained in that office until 1807. At first a Federalist, he changed his views under
the influence of Clay and John Quincy Adams, and was Republican Governor of New
Hampshire in 1812-13 and 1816-17. It was he who, as Governor, planned to transform
Dartmouth College into a state university. We shall hear of him later in this volume.

2 This story, told first in Plumer's Life of William Plumer, pp. 214-15, is also related
in a vigorous way in Lodge's Webster, pp. 36-37.

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH in

dred dollars a year which, under contract, he had been paying
to him. Bramble's attorney was Jeremiah Mason, and it
looked as if the prisoner, who had some influence in the com-
munity, would escape the penalty of his fraud. By a fortu-
nate accident, Webster ascertained during the proceedings
that a worthless scoundrel named Lovejoy, slated to testify
against Brown, had been seen furtively taking a paper from
Bramble. After hearing Lovejoy's somewhat stilted testi-
mony, Webster shrewdly concluded that the document had
contained information which the latter had memorized; and
finally, drawing himself up and marching out from behind the
bar to the witness stand, he glared at Lovejoy and burst out,
"Give me the paper from which you are testifying!" Ter-
rified by this apparition, the witness pulled the sheet from his
pocket, and Webster seized it. Mason quite naturally pro-
tested, but, when he was told of all the circumstances, warned
his client, Bramble, that he would better settle as quickly as
possible. Eventually Bramble was obliged to pay five hundred
dollars to Brown, by way of indemnity, and to defray Web-
ster's fees as well as Mason's. The case became a classic in
New Hampshire legal history. Years afterwards, some old
men, meeting Webster in Exeter, where the trial had been held,
asked him the question, "How did you know that Lovejoy
had that paper in his pocket ?" l

It is of the Portsmouth period that "another story is told
which, although possibly apochryphal, deserves to be recorded.
A certain John Greenough, living in Grafton County, being in
litigation regarding the title to his farm, had engaged as counsel
Moses P. Payson, of Bath, Maine, who had called upon Web-
ster as a fellow Dartmouth man for assistance. When Green-
ough inquired about the associate counsel, Payson explained
that he was to be Daniel Webster, son of old Ebenezer, of
Salisbury. "What!" he cried, "That little black stable-boy
who once brought me some horses ! Then I think we might
as well give up the case." At that late hour it was impossible

1 Harvey, pp. 67-73.

DANIEL WEBSTER

to drop Webster, and Greenough attended court like the
Knight of the Rueful Countenance, so disheartened that,
when Webster rose to make the closing speech, his client sat
dejected, paying little attention to what was being said. Grad-
ually his attention wa's arrested by Webster's voice, and he
could not help listening ; and, as he listened, he was held spell-
bound by its witchery. When the lawyer had finished, Payson
turned to Greenough and asked, "What do you think of him
now? "Think!" was the answer. "Why, I think he is an
angel sent from Heaven to save me from ruin, and my wife and
children from misery !" l

In the merciless give and take of this practice in the New
Hampshire courts, Webster gained skill and confidence. He
later told Plumer that he "had never found any place where
the law was administered with so much precision and exact-
ness as in the County of Rockingham." He no longer spent
hours with the standard treatises on legal questions, and we do
not find him commended by his colleagues for his extensive
learning or familiarity with precedents. He tended to rely
more and more upon what he called "knowledge of general
principles," and his success encouraged him to believe that his
policy was correct. "Clearness, force, and earnestness," he
said, "are the qualities which produce conviction." For the
drudgery involved in poring over the pages of Reports he had to
count upon the assistance of his colleagues. "It so happened,
and so has happened," he wrote in his Autobiography, "that,
with the exception of instances in which I have been associated
with the Attorney-General of the United States, for the time
being, I have hardly ten times in my life acted as junior coun-
sel." 2 He took pains to consult others as to the law, but he
was more interested in what the law ought to be.

Webster once told to Thomas Jefferson a story illustrating
the point that men sometimes get more credit for readiness and
extent of knowledge than they really deserve. In his Ports-

1 This story, often since repeated, was told originally by Harvey, pp. 76-78, in much
greater detail.

2 National Edition, XVII, 24.

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 113

mouth days a blacksmith brought him a case under a will con-
cerning a trifling estate. After going through all his own books,
as well as the libraries of Jeremiah Mason and Peyton R. Free-
man, another Portsmouth attorney, he reached the conclusion
that the bequest was either a contingent remainder or an execu-
tory devise. Still persistent, he sent to Boston for Fearne's
Essay and other books, costing in all fifty dollars. After
studying the subject for some weeks and preparing an elabo-
rate brief, he went into court, argued the case, and secured a
verdict for his client. Touched by the blacksmith's poverty,
Webster charged him a fee of only fifteen dollars, and was thus
considerably out of pocket as a result of taking the suit.

There was, however, a sequel to demonstrate that virtue
has its reward. Some years later, while Webster was on his
way to Washington, Aaron Burr consulted him in New York
on a case which involved the same basic principle as that of the
blacksmith's bequest. After listening attentively to Burr's
statement of the facts, Webster began to reply, his amazing
memory coming to his aid, and cited a series of precedents
going back to the reign of Charles II. So astounded was Burr
that he could not help asking Webster whether the latter had
been consulted by the other side. Later Webster drafted a
written opinion, for which he charged Burr enough to com-
pensate himself for the expenses to which he had been origi-
nally subjected. In relating the episode, Webster said, "Mr.
Burr, no doubt, thought me a much more learned lawyer than
I was, and, under the circumstances of the case, I did not think
it worth while to disabuse him of his good opinion of me." l

Incidents of this kind and there are several others illus-
trating the same point prove that Webster was not indolent
and that, when necessity demanded, he would spare no exer-
tion to establish his case. If he had been lazy or careless, he
could not have held his own in the competition. He later told
Choate that "he had never met anywhere else abler men than
some of those who initiated him in the rugged discipline of the

1 This story is related in Harvey, pp. 74-76, and Curtis, 1, 224-25.

H 4 DANIEL WEBSTER

New Hampshire Courts/* Among those from whom he
learned most was Jeremiah Smith/ who had been Judge of the
United States Circuit Court (1801-02) and Chief Justice of the
Superior Court of New Hampshire (1802-09). After serving
one term as Governor (1809-10), he had been defeated for
reelection by John Langdon, and had resumed his law practice,
in which he was engaged during Webster's early years at Ports-
mouth. From 1813 to 1816, he was Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of New Hampshire, and, in that position, per-
formed a valuable service in reorganizing the administration
of law in the state, which, before that time, had been chaotic
and unsystematic. After that Court was abolished in 1816,
through a political intrigue, Judge Smith held no other public
offices. He was defective as an orator, but he was an agree-
able conversationalist, and probably superior in exact scholar-
ship to either Mason or Webster. In writing to his widow,
Webster once said, "For what I am in professional life I owe
much to Judge Smith. I revere his character ; I shall cherish
his memory as long as I live." 2 Smith was so frequently on
the bench or in political office that his professional career,
until after 1816, was constantly interrupted, but he and Web-
ster were frequently opposed in the courts between 1809 and
1813. There is a tradition that Chief Justice Smith, after hear-
ing Webster argue a case in Hillsborough County, remarked
that "he had never before met such a young man as that." 3

1 Jeremiah Smith (1759-1842), born in Peterborough, New Hampshire, enlisted in
the Revolutionary Army and was wounded at Bennington. He spent two years at
Harvard (1777-79), but transferred to Rutgers, where he graduated in 1780. After
studying law, he was admitted to the bar at Dover, New Hampshire. A Federalist by
conviction, he served in Congress from 1791 to 1797, an< 3 ne was United States District
Attorney from 1797 to 1800. He received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Harvard
in 1807. Although he had his prejudices and preferences, he was said to have been,
on the bench, the very " personification of justice." Webster wrote of him : " Jeremiah
Smith was perhaps the best talker I have been acquainted with ; he was full of knowl-
edge of books and men, had a great deal of wit and humor, and abhorred silence as an
intolerable state of existence." (National Edition, XVIII, 296.)

2 In commending Judge Smith to Chancellor Kent in 1825, Webster wrote: "He
knows everything about New England . . . and as to the law, he knows so much more
of it than I do, or ever shall, that I forbear to speak on that point." (National Edition,
XVII, 384.)

8 Curtis, I, 76.

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 115

Certainly Smith became Webster's friend and patron, and the
latter profited by coming into contact with Smith's quickness
of perception, exemplary integrity, and dispassionate judg-
ment. The highest praise ever accorded him on the bench
was that "no one had anything to hope from his friendship, or
to fear from his enmity." l

Another eminent advocate with whom Webster contended
was the handsome and elegantly dressed George Sullivan, 2
of Exeter, whose flowing eloquence had power to stir the flinty
hearts of jurymen, but who was inferior to Smith and Mason
in logic and legal knowledge. Still younger, but destined to a
brilliant career, was the "Little Giant," Ichabod Bartlett, 3
who had been born in Webster's native town of Salisbury, and
who was to succeed him and Mason as the leader of the New
Hampshire bar. William Plumer, Jr., who knew them all,
described his father, Governor Plumer, as the Nestor or Ulysses
of the group; Smith, as the Menelaus, "with a touch of the
Thersites humor"; Mason, as the Ajax or Agamemnon; and
Webster as the Achilles, "impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis,
acerr

From 1807 until 1813, Webster devoted himself unstintedly
to his private law practice. Many years later, Robert Rantoul,
Jr., alluding to the brilliancy of the New Hampshire bar in the

1 Morison, Life of Jeremiah Smith, p. 208. The inscription on Judge Smith's tomb-
stone, in the old cemetery at Exeter, was prepared by Webster and George Ticknor, and
describes him as " equalled by few in original power, practical wisdom, and judicial
learning and acuteness; surpassed in the love of honor, justice, and truth by none."

2 George Sullivan (1771-1838), the son of General John Sullivan, was born in Dur-
ham, New Hampshire, graduated at Harvard in 1790, studied law, and began to
practice in Exeter, where he resided during the remainder of his life. He was in the
State Legislature in 1805, and was later Attorney-General, serving from 1815 to 1836.
John M. Shirley said of him : " He relied too little on his preparation, and too much
upon his oratory, his power of illustration and argument. But neither the court, the
jury, nor the people ever grew tired of listening to the silver tones of his arguments,
that fell like music on the ear." (McClintock, New Hampshire y pp. 514-15.)

8 Ichabod Bartlett (1786-1853), after graduating at Dartmouth m 1808, studied law
and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He was for three terms in Congress (1823-2,9),
but had a disinclination for political life. He was ready of speech, tactful, and success-
ful in gaining verdicts. Though small of stature, he was quite able to take care of
himself by his wits. When the gigantic Mason once said to him that, if he did not
cease his insolence, he would put him in his pocket, Bartlett replied, " Do it, and you
will have more law in your pocket than you ever had in your head,"

ii6 DANIEL WEBSTER

early nineteenth century, said, "The collision of such minds
invigorated and sharpened the faculties whose native temper
was competent to sustain the shock." l It was a struggle
which Webster enjoyed, and for six years he held his own single-
handed against older and younger rivals. After his election
to Congress in 1812, however, he was no longer able to ride the
circuit, and he acquired a partner, Timothy Farrar, 2 who kept
his office open and carried on routine business during his long
absences in Washington. At about this time, according to
Webster's explicit statement, he was nominated by Governor
John Taylor Oilman 3 as Attorney-General of New Hamp-
shire, but the Council rejected him by a vote of three to two. 4

1 Rantoul, Eulogy on Justice Levi Woodbury, October 16, 1851.

2 Timothy Farrar (1788-1874), sort of Chief Justice Timothy Farrar, of the New
Hampshire Court of Common Pleas, was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and
was later, from 1824 to 1833, Judge of the State Court of Common Pleas. He published
in 1819 a Report of the Dartmouth College Case and in 1867 a Manual of the Constitution
of the United States. Webster wrote to Farrar, March 4, 1813, proposing a partnership,
and it was actually formed on March 24, 1813. (National Edition, XVI, 671.)

3 John Taylor Gilman (1753-1828), of Exeter, a large landowner and popular New
England federalist, was Governor of the state for eleven consecutive terms, from
1794 to 1805, being finally displaced by the Republican, John Langdon, during Jeffer-
son's administration. Later the War of 1812 brought New Hampshire back into the
Federalist ranks, and Gilman was again Governor for three years, from 1813 to 1815.
He was a handsome, genial, and efficient man, who made few enemies and invariably
ran ahead of his party ticket. He and Captain Ebenezer Webster were political allies
and personal friends, and the Governor did much to aid Daniel Webster in getting a
footing in the law.

4 Webster's own account of the incident was given in a speech at a dinner in Syracuse,
New York, in May 1851 (National Edition, XIII, 422 rT.), and reads in part as follows:
** At the age of thirty I was in New Hampshire, practising law, and had some clients.
John Taylor Gilman, who, for fourteen years, was Governor of the State, thought that,
a young man as I was, I might be fit to be an Attorney General of the State of New
Hampshire, and he nominated me to the Council ; and the Council taking it into their
deep consideration, and not happening to be of the same politics of the Governor and
myself, voted, three out of five, that I was not competent, and very likely they were
right." The facts are rather difficult to check up. Governor Gilman was elected in
March 1813, and took office in June, by which date Webster had been elected to Con-
gress and obviously could not have held a position as Attorney-General. The Governor
in 1812, when Webster was " at the age of thirty," was William Plurner, who, recently
converted to Republicanism and elected on that ticket, would hardly have appointed
a Federalist to any state office. The Governor in 1810 and 1811 was John Langdon,
also a Republican. I have been unable to find any record of Webster's nomination as
Attorney-General, but the facts indicate that it must have taken place in December
1815, when Daniel French resigned the office. Gilman was then Governor and three
of the council were Republicans. Thus conditions then would have been as Webster
described them, George Sullivan was eventually appointed to succeed French and

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 117

Although Webster's reputation was spreading from Ports-
mouth to the far corners of the state, he spoke very infre-
quently outside the courts. In the summer of 18093 however,
when he was invited to deliver the Phi Beta Kappa Oration at
Dartmouth College, he drove, with his wife and Mr. and Mrs.
Mason, to Hanover, preparing his address at the various inns
along the route. "Much was written on the road," he
declared, "and many things were conned over and delivered
which were never written at all." His subject was "The
State of our Literature" a theme rather difficult to handle
at a moment when the United States had no literature of any
consequence, and when Irving, Poe, Longfellow, Whittier, and
Emerson, to say nothing of Hawthorne and Whitman, had yet
to appear. Webster was obliged to confess that "this country
or this age is not distinguished by uncommon literary zeal"
and to add that there was "an apathy in the pursuit of literary
and scientific objects." l This deplorable condition he attrib-
uted chiefly to two causes: "an inordinate ambition to accu-
mulate wealth," and an exaggerated emphasis on politics. He
was moved to recommend most earnestly the formation of an
historical society in New Hampshire, 2 saying :

A historical society is one of the most easy and useful associations
of literary men. It is an object of primary consideration, in every
country that is desirous of giving its history to posterity.

George Ticknor, 3 who had graduated from Dartmouth in
1807, was back for Commencement, and reported that the

served for twenty years. When Webster was consulted regarding the matter in 1814,
he wrote to Moody Kent : " I cannot say whether I would or not accept the office if
offered. I was once rather in a temper for it, but of late my opinion is somewhat
altered. . . . My indifference to the office does not arise from any wish to be here
[Washington], I do not intend spending another winter in this Great Dismal." Van
Tyne, p. 69.

1 Webster had probably not read Wordsworth, Coleridge, or Scott although later
he became very fond of the Waverley Novels and used to recite long passages from
The Lady of the Lake and Marmion.

2 To-day, the New Hampshire Historical Society, in its beautiful stone building at
Concord, has the finest collection of Websteriana in existence.

8 George Ticknor (1791-1871), to whom all students of Webster are greatly indebted,
was born in Boston, and, after graduating from Dartmouth, studied law, and was
engaged in practice from i8i3toi8i7in Boston. A scholar by inclination, he then

n8 DANIEL WEBSTER

Websters and Masons made "a very merry party'' and were
"objects of great interest in the village through the whole time
they remained there/' Ticknor's comment on the Phi Beta
Kappa Oration was acute :

Mr. Webster's manner in speaking was very fine, fresh, earnest,
and impressive (I was then eighteen years old) ; his oration was very
much admired and praised ; but it seemed to me, at the time, that the
excitement he created and the homage he received were due rather
to their affection for the man, and their great admiration of him,
than to the merit of that particular performance. 1

Although Webster's income, during his Portsmouth period,
would seem to have been adequate to his needs, and although
he lived modestly, he accumulated debts which it took him
some years to pay off. "Property was something/' said Frank
B. Sanborn, "which Webster could acquire, but never retain." 2
It has been plausibly suggested that he had become so much
reconciled to debt in his father's household that he was very
little disturbed at owing money. Of the frugality so often
ascribed to the New England Yankee, neither he nor his father
had the slightest trace. He went through Dartmouth on bor-
rowed funds; he assumed his father's obligations, and paid
them off; and, when cash came in easily, it was spent as if
the source were inexhaustible. "He does not know the value
of money, and never will," said Judge Jeremiah Smith. "No
matter; he was born for something better than hoarding
money-bags/' 3

accepted a position as Professor of the French and Spanish Languages at Harvard,
remaining in that position until 1835. During the remainder of his life he wrote his
History of Spanish Literature (1849), and other important books, including a Life of
William Hickling Prescott (1864). His Life, Letters, and Journals (1876) is rich in
references to Webster.

1 Curtis, I, 96.

2 Professor Edwin D. Sanborn, who married a niece of Daniel Webster, said, in his
History of New Hampshire (1875), of Webster: " When he left Portsmouth in 1817,
his debts there, unpaid, amounted to thousands, which his Boston friends cheerfully
paid." On what authority this statement was based I have not been able to ascertain,
but Sanborn doubtless had sources of information denied to those outside the immediate
family, and his assertion is supported by traditions of long standing.

3 National Edition, XVII, 547,

WARNER HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE

GOVERNOR LANGDON'S HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH,
NEW HAMPSHIRE

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 119

William Plumer, the younger, once told a story illustrating
the marked contrast between Webster and Mason in their
attitude towards money. While in Congress, they kept a car-
riage between them ; and, at the close of one session, their
landlord asked Webster to remove a small shed which they had
put up as a stable. "Why," said Webster, with one of his
careless gestures, "remove it when you please. It is of no
further use to us. If it is worth anything to you, you are
welcome to it." As the landlord was thanking him for his
generosity, it occurred to Webster that one-half the property
belonged to Mason, and he told the man to consult the latter
on the subject. Mason, when he was approached, said, "You
may take down the shed and sell the materials either at auction
or at private sale, and account to me for the proceeds. But
this is no time to sell it to advantage when everybody is selling
out, at the close of the session. Wait a while, till it will bring
a fair price, and I will settle with you for it, next winter."
This was true New England prudence and foresight, contrasted
with Webster's careless indifference to a few dollars. 1 His
temperamental lavishness of disposition would be less culpable
if it had not led him to regard the borrowing of money as a
matter of small importance, and to accept only too readily the
sacrifices of others in his behalf. The maxim, "Easy come,*
easy go," never had a better demonstration than in Webster *s
career.

The calanrity which finally wrecked Webster's finances was
what is known even to-day as the "Great Fire." At seven-
thirty, on the evening of December 22, 1813, while he was on
his way to Washington, 2 a blaze was discovered in a barn
belonging to Mrs. Woodward, on the corner of Church and
Court Streets, just back of Webster's residence. Within half

1 National Edition, I, 546-48.

2 Brewster, in his Rambles about Portsmouth, Second Series, p. 210, is responsible for
the frequently repeated story that Webster, at dinner at Jacob Sheafe's, not far away,
heard the cry of " Fire ! " and that Mr. Sheafe, pouring out a fresh supply of wine,
insisted on taking a parting glass with his guest before he left. This tale is,
of course, entirely fanciful, like certain other stories in Brewster's entertaining but
frequently inaccurate volumes.

DANIEL WEBSTER

an hour it had spread to his house, which was speedily con-
sumed, and it was soon raging over a considerable area almost
in the heart of the town. The flames, fanned by a light wind,
moved so rapidly that almost nothing could be rescued by the
victims. When the conflagration was checked, at about five
o'clock on the following morning, fifteen acres lay in smoulder-
ing ruins, and 272 buildings had been destroyed, including
108 dwelling houses and 64 stores and shops, with a total loss
of more than $3oo,ooo. 1 It was a clear winter's night, and the
illumination could be seen as far away as Boston.

When Webster reached Washington, he found there a letter
telling him of the disaster, and he promptly wrote Ezekiel :

I arrived here last evening, and here learned of the Portsmouth fire
and the consumption of my house. I have only time to say, that the
safety of my family compensates the loss of the property. ... I have
not time to say more, but thought you would be glad to hear that I
am in possession of myself after the knowledge of such a loss. 2

On January 6, 1814, he wrote to I. P. Davis, from Washing-
ton, saying :

Our town has met with another conflagration. I heard not a
syllable of it till I reached here. I found a letter from my wife, but
so horrible was the general account which the people about me gave,
that it put my firmness to a severe test to open it. When I found
nothing lost but house and property, you may well imagine how much
I felt relieved from distress. 3

Mrs. Webster apparently spent the ensuing winter partly

1 Waldron wrote Webster : " The real distress & consternation at Portsmouth
is beyond all description & I hope something great and liberal will be done for them
you will see how many widows & people in low & middling circumstances have lost all
& are unable even to put up a shelter." (Van Tyne, p. 48.)

2 Letter of December 29, 1813, National Edition, XVII, 237. Webster's house,
which was uninsured, was worth $6,000, and his library also was very valuable. Mrs.
Webster, at a dinner at which Josiah Quincy was present, on February 17, 1826, said
jestingly that Webster regretted most the loss of a pipe of wine, adding, " It was the
first pipe of wine we ever had, and the getting it was a great event." To this sally
Webster replied that " it had been on tap for some time, and our table was not without
guests," and that it " could scarcely have been more than half a pipe at the time of the
fire." (Quincy, Figures of the Pasf, pp. 254-56.)

3 National Edition, XVII, 238,

WEBSTER IN PORTSMOUTH 121

with the hospitable Masons and partly with Ezekiel Webster,
who was comfortably settled in a large house in Boscawen. At
this time, it must be remembered, Daniel's oldest child, Grace,
was only four, and Daniel Fletcher Webster was a baby only a
few months old. In sending a note to his wife in January,
Daniel urged her "to do a great deal of visiting/* especially in
the neighborhood of Salisbury. When he returned in the
spring, they at once rented the house on High Street, which
they occupied until they moved to Boston.

Biographers of Webster have been disposed to pass over the
Portsmouth period as of slight importance, and it has been
overshadowed by the extensive investigations which have been
made into his later life. But it is a mistake to dismiss it with
a few casual sentences. It was a time when Webster, both in
law and in politics, was unconsciously preparing himself for a
broader career a career which he hoped might be his, but of
which he was never oversanguine. We have seen how rapidly
he rose to a foremost position at the bar of New Hampshire.
The early stages of his advancement in politics must now be
considered.

V
FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS

Every boy and every gal
That *s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative.

GILBERT, lolanthe

We are, sir, from principles and habit attached to the union of the states.
But our attachment is to the substance, and not to the form.

WEBSTER, The Rockingham Memorial

The voice of the whole mercantile interest is united, to an unprecedented
degree, against the war, which is declared to be undertaken, at so much hazard
of blood and treasure, for their benefit.

WEBSTER, Address before the Washington
Benevolent Society, Portsmouth, N. H.

OLD Ebenezer Webster was once taken suddenly ill in a village
which had cast its vote for Jefferson. "Carry me back home/'
he cried. "I don't want to die in a Republican town!" 1
Such was the fierceness of the partisanship to which the Webster
boys were accustomed in their youth. Captain Webster had
been a stubborn and influential figure in the legislature at a
period when New Hampshire people took their politics very
seriously. He favored the new Constitution in 1789, and later,
during Washington's administration, sided with Hamilton
against Jefferson. An uncompromising Federalist, he was
sure that the nation was on the brink of ruin in 1801, when
John Adams was superseded in the White House by the restless
statesman from Virginia.

Daniel Webster's political creed was codified before he was

1 The party of Thomas Jefferson, to-day usually known as " Democratic," was,
during the first two decades of the nineteenth century, more frequently called " Repub-
lican." Other terms, such as " Whig " or " Antifederalist," were also not infrequently
used.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 123

of voting age. The opinions quoted with approval about the
hearthstone in the Webster tavern were those of his father's
cronies, the Federalist leaders of New Hampshire, such as
Governor Gilman or Judge Jeremiah Smith. Some lads,
revolting against this parental dogmatism, might have become
radicals out of sheer perversity. But Daniel was tempera-
mentally a conservative, who preferred familiar objects and
long-traveled roads. He could not understand Jefferson's
passion for experimenting with science and society, and he
had a distrust of all reformers, heretics, and rebels. He was
no Percival, to follow "wandering fires," but an institutionalise
a supporter of family, church, and country; and he liked,
indeed probably overvalued, tradition, law, and regularity.
By individualists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, he was
repelled, and he cherished no desire to be "free from heart-
withering custom's cold control."

As he became more and more identified with the prosperous
and established elements in the community, his innate con-
victions hardened, and his tendency was to resist changes.
He was neither bigoted nor unprogressive, but he wished, if
possible, to avoid innovations. Thus, to his admirers, he be-
came a symbol of stability. Whenever waves of popular
unrest threatened to inundate the republic, he remained firm,
as immutable as that Mount Kearsarge under the shadow of
which he had been born.

In his Hanover Oration, in 1811, Webster denounced the
revolutionary ideas of Napoleon. Two years later, at Frye-
burg, as we have seen, he asserted that any alteration of the
Constitution was a serious business, "not to be undertaken
without obvious necessity, nor conducted without caution,
deliberation, and diffidence." Caution, deliberation, and diffi-
dence! These are strange words on the lips of a young man
just out of college. This is not the rashness which we condone
in "flaming youth." Henry Clay, in his "salad days," flung
prudence to the winds, and Andrew Jackson as a mature states-
man was not precisely discreet. Even the sedate John Quincy
Adams had his radical moments. But critics had no occasion

i2 4 DANIEL WEBSTER

to call Webster "reckless" or "impulsive/' Governed by his
reason, he saw the wisdom of a strong central government,
under which a too ebullient individualism should be restrained.
The border line between caution and cowardice is difficult to
define, and Webster's enemies often accused him of being
afraid. It was not timidity or inertia, however, which made
him a conservative, but rather a carefully considered phi-
losophy, inherited, and also confirmed by experience. When
he was ready to cast his ballot, not even Governor Gilman was
a fiercer Federalist than he.

It was inevitable that Webster, with his interest in public
affairs and his facility in debate, should be drawn into politics.
The first campaign in which he participated was that of 1804,
while he was in the office of Christopher Gore. President
Thomas Jefferson, detested by New England Federalists for
what they regarded as his radicalism in economics, in govern-
ment, and in religion, was a candidate for reelection, with
Charles C. Pinckney as his Federalist opponent. In August,
New Hampshire Federalists enjoyed a brief moment of triumph
through the success, by a small majority, of their Congressional
ticket, and Webster was much encouraged. 1 Events soon
showed, however, that he had been too sanguine. In Novem-
ber, electors were chosen for the first time in New Hampshire
by a system of popular suffrage, and the Federalists were
beaten. 2 Nor were the results in other sections of the country
satisfactory to Webster. Only two states Connecticut and
Delaware cast all their votes for Pinckney and King ; and
two more votes, secured from Maryland, gave the Federalists
a miserable total of 14 as compared with 162 for Jefferson.
It looked as if Federalism were moribund, if not defunct.

In the gubernatorial election of the following March, the
Federalist, Gilman, was a candidate for the twelfth consecu-
tive time, his opponent being John Langdon, a sagacious and
popular Republican. During the bitterly contested campaign,

1 Webster to Davis, October 20, 1804 (Van Tyne, p. 16).

2 At this election, held on November 5, 1804, the seven Republican electors from
New Hampshire received 6607 votes against 6336 for their opponents.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 125

Webster, while on a visit to his father, wrote " at a single sitting
of a winter's day and night" a pamphlet, published anony-
mously in February 1805, under the title. An Appeal to the
Old Whigs of New Hampshire. Captain Webster was under
financial obligation to both candidates. In the autumn of
1801, he had secured Governor Oilman's assistance in borrow-
ing "a few hundreds"; 1 and some years before that, he had
obtained the loan of a considerable sum from the wealthy and
generous Langdon. 2 Neither debt had been paid, and the
position was embarrassing to Daniel, who could understand
all its complications.

Encouraged, perhaps, by his anonymity, Webster traced
the historical origin of the Republican Party back to the Anti-
federalists of 1787 and the Jacobins of the French Revolu-
tionary days, and then reviewed the record of Jefferson's first
term, condemning especially that President's attack on the
judiciary, his abolition of internal taxation, and his abandon-
ment of the navy. Webster thought rather highly of his first
contribution to campaign literature. "Not long ago," he
wrote in 1829, "I found a copy of this sage production.
Among other things of a similar kind it is certainly not despic-
able." 3 But he could not hold back the tidal wave of Jeffer-
sonian Democracy, then at its flood. At the election on March
12, 1805, New Hampshire rejected Oilman and chose a Re-
publican Governor. 4 Prophets of gloom wailed that New Eng-
land and the nation were about to suffer the fate of Nineveh

1 Ebenezer Webster to his sons, December 21, 1804 (National Edition, XVII, 197).

2 Sanborn, New Hampshire, pp. 286-87.

3 The full text of this Appeal is reprinted in the National Edition, XV, 522 ff.
Webster said that he had had the pleasure of seeing his pamphlet " kicked about under
many tables."

4 The State Senate had seven Republicans and four Federalists. The New Hamp-
shire Gazette, on June 11, said gleefully, " At length the triumph of Republicanism is
complete." William Plumer wrote to Josiah Quincy : " Democracy has obtained its
long-expected triumph in New Hampshire. John Langdon is governor-elect. His
success is not owing to snow, rain, hail, or bad roads, but to the incontrovertible fact
that the Federalists of this state do not compose the majority. Many good men have
grown weary of a system whose labors bear a close affinity to those of Sisyphus."
(McClintock, New Hampshire, p* 474.) Governor Langdon took office on June 6,
1806, at Concord.

126 DANIEL WEBSTER

and Tyre. In his first political skirmish, Webster had been
defeated.

While this local clash of factions was taking place, the
mighty duel between Great Britain and Napoleon for Euro-
pean supremacy was moving towards a crisis, and the United
States, as the most important neutral shipping power, was
the unlucky victim of the punitive measures of the warring
empires. With each of the belligerents hoping to coax or
coerce America into an alliance, it was not easy for us to
preserve that neutrality enjoined by Washington in his Fare-
well Address. There were, of course, open adherents of both
England and France within our borders. The situation re-
sembled that during the early months of the World War, when
England and Germany, heading powerful confederations, were
endeavoring to force us to choose between them. The diplo-
matic correspondence of Jefferson and Madison resembles
in tone that of Wilson and Lansing more than a century later.
In 1915 and 1916, however, the United States was relatively
much stronger than in 1806 and 1807, and was consequently
freer to adopt an independent course.

Commercial interests in New England were chafing under
diminishing profits. Every time an American trader was
seized or sunk by a foreign warship, some Yankee was out of
pocket. Whenever a Salem merchantman was searched by a
British frigate and our sailors were forcibly impressed into
service under the Union Jack, new irritation developed. It
was at the seaports that resentment was keenest; interior
sections, although humiliated at our impotence, were not
affected so directly by these outrages. Jefferson, although
not a non-resistant, was a philosophical pacifist, who consid-
ered war as a last resort, justifiable only when all peaceable
means of adjusting difficulties between nations had been
exhausted. His apparent procrastination and his reluctance
to adopt measures of "preparedness" were the logical outcome
of his idealistic principles. As a result, the country, at the
opening of his second term, was as nearly without naval and
military protection as it has ever been in its history.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 127

What many New Englanders were thinking may be gathered
from Webster's oration on Independence Day, in i8o6 3 before
the " Federal gentlemen " of Concord. He did not discriminate
between England and France, but, condemning them both
for their affronts to the United States, demanded "a naval
force sufficient to protect our harbors and convoy the great
branches of our trade." He declared that the French Empire
had "all the immorality, the licentiousness, the prodigality
and corruption of declining Rome"; but he also referred to
England's attitude on the matter of our maritime rights as
"jealous, haughty, and arrogant." On the broad question of
preparedness, he said :

Nothing seems plainer than this : if we will have commerce, we
must protect it. So long as we are rich and defenseless, rapacity will
prey upon us. The government ought either to defend the merchant,
or to repeal the laws which restrain him from defending himself. It
ought to afford him the assistance of armed vessels, or to suffer him
to arm his own vessels. 1

He concluded with a striking sentence, the purport of which
he had already employed in his Fryeburg Address y and which
he was to use again forty-six years later at the conclusion of
his last speech in Congress :

A genuine patriot . . . feels that the last end, which can happen to
any man, never conies too soon, if he fall in defense of the law and
liberty of his country. 2

The unusual feature of this oration was the impartiality with
which Webster struck out at both warring nations, instead
of confining himself, like most of the Federalists, to the casti-
gation of Napoleon. The insults which so stirred his indigna-
tion at Concord were trifling, however, compared with those
which were to come. England and France now resorted to a
series of retaliatory measures, calculated to force neutrals into
the fray, on one side or the other. Already, on May 16, 1806,
Charles James Fox had issued an Order in Council placing the

1 National Edition, XV, 537 ff. 2 IKd., p. 521, and X, 170.

128 DANIEL WEBSTER

entire European coast from Brest to the Elbe under blockade,
with the object of shutting off supplies from the armies of
Napoleon. The French Emperor, choosing a moment when
the victory of Jena had made him military master of Prussia,
replied with the defiant Berlin Decree (November 21, 1806),
isolating the British Isles and forbidding any ship which had
touched at an English port to enter a harbor in France. Brit-
ain's response was another Order in Council, prohibiting all
neutral vessels from trading with any French port from which
British commerce was excluded. Napoleon then countered
with the sweeping Milan Decree, declaring that any boat
calling between British ports was lawful prize and that any
craft which submitted to search by an English cruiser thereby
relinquished its neutral character. Strict enforcement of all
these measures was, of course, impossible. But, in spite of the
fact that they were merely fierce gestures, our commerce suf-
fered more and more, and protests to the Department of State
became frequent. It has been estimated that, between 1803
and 1812, more than nine hundred of our vessels were cap-
tured by the British and more than five hundred by the French.
Although his equanimity was disturbed by these drastic
edicts and by the ravages on our commerce, Jefferson was not
ready for war. He preferred instead a policy of "peaceable
coercion." Recalling the success of the Non-Importation
Acts of 1756, he resolved to bring economic pressure to bear
on Europe. As a preliminary warning, the administration
issued a Non-Importation Act, prohibiting the admission of
certain British commodities to the United States, the purpose
being to deprive England of her American market and thus
to persuade her to modify her hostile attitude towards neutral
countries. Even when the British frigate Leopard bombarded
our Chesapeake^ killing three men, badly wounding fourteen,
and compelling her to haul down her colors and give up four
sailors, the President declined an opportunity to lead the
country into war. Instead he issued a dignified Proclamation,
called a special session of Congress, and, on December 22, 1807,
signed an act declaring an Embargo, unlimited in duration.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 129

on all American shipping engaged in trade with any foreign
port.

By the Embargo, Jefferson hoped to protect our merchant
vessels, to secure time for the atmosphere to clear, and, through
economic pressure to compel England and France to respect
our maritime rights. If it had been heartily supported by
the country, it might have succeeded. Instead it was greeted
by merchants and shipowners with derision and disapproval.
They did not want war, but they were even less favorably
disposed to an embargo. The news was printed in the issue
of the New Hampshire Gazette for December 29, 1807, by which
date Daniel Webster had become a resident of Portsmouth^
which, like most of the Atlantic coast towns, was dependent
on its carrying trade. After a temporary decline during the
Revolution, our commerce had undergone a marked revival.
The tonnage of Portsmouth on December 31, 1806, was 22,798,
and, during the preceding twelvemonth, 103 vessels had cleared
from there for the West Indies alone. Its exports during the
year 1807 aggregated $680,000, and its imports amounted to
more than JSoOjOOo. 1 It needed no trained economist to pre-
dict what the effect of the Jeffersonian policy would be.

As if by the waving of a devil's wand, tons of shipping in
Boston, Salem, Newburyport, and Portsmouth became worth-
less. The value of our exports dropped in a year from
$110,000,000 to $20,000,000. The Embargo was, no doubt,
frequently evaded, but, through its operation, thousands of
industrious people were deprived of their means of livelihood.
It was as if an army should turn its machine guns on its own
troops in an effort to annihilate the enemy. 2 Republican
newspapers in New England, loyal to their leader, tried to be
cheerful, but it was a bitter draught for them to swallow.

To the shipowners of the coast towns, born and bred in

1 These statistics are quoted from Barstow's History of New Hampshire (1842),
p. 341 ff.

2 An attempt h&s sometimes been made to prove that the Embargo had on New
England commerce a less detrimental effect than has ordinarily been supposed. But
it is difficult to find any other explanation for the extraordinary decline in shipping
which immediately followed the promulgation of the Embargo measures.

130 DANIEL WEBSTER

Federalism, it seemed as if Jefferson, whose political strength
was drawn principally from the South and West and from the
agrarian classes, were wreaking vengeance on the Northeast
and its commerce. 1 The hatred formerly felt towards Eng-
land and France was now transferred to the President. Soon,
by one of history's strange mutations, the Federalists of New
England were driven from their nationalist position into one
which was anti-national and sectional; and, in the privacy
of their homes, they began to whisper threats of disunion.
Self-interest transformed them into advocates of State rights,
and they used arguments similar to those which were later
advanced by South Carolina. While a storm of protest
rumbled along the Atlantic, the possibility of separation from
the Union was discussed in Market Square by men who were
Webster's clients and friends.

To the controversy thus precipitated, Webster made a con-
tribution in a small pamphlet called Considerations on the
Embargo Laws y published as propaganda during the summer
preceding the elections of 1808. Gallatin, the Secretary of the
Treasury, had courageously sent a letter to Jefferson, insisting
that an unlimited embargo was unconstitutional ; and Webster,
developing this point, treated the matter as a question of
constitutional law, comparing Jefferson's act unfavorably
with the sixty-day embargo laid by President Washington
in 1794. ^ ^ e moment when Webster's argument appeared,
the Jeffersonian Embargo had been in operation for more than
seven months without affecting the attitude of England and
France towards us. A few captains, habituated to risks and
indifferent to punishment, had made money by escaping the
vigilance of patrols ; but the average man noticed only that

1 The Federalists were not placated by Jefferson's tactless letter to the Legislature
of New Hampshire, in August 1808, advising the citizens of that state to retire from
the seas a/nd to provide for themselves " those comforts and conveniences of life for
which it would be unwise ever more to recur to distant countries." The condescension
of this counsel was peculiarly galling to merchants who were losing thousands of dollars
a month. Nor was their fury allayed when they read in the New Hampshire Gazette
for April 19, 1808, such cowardly doctrine as this: " The British have captured about
50, the French 10 or 15, American ships, under their respective blockading decrees!
What would have been the total if the Embargo had not kept our ships in port ?"

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 131

the Embargo was limiting our trade, causing many bank-
ruptcies, and hastening the decay and ruin of our merchant
fleets. 1

Webster specifically charged Jefferson with having instituted
the Embargo in order to favor France and encourage her in
her war against Great Britain. 2 The New England Federalists
were attached to England by various ties social, financial,
and sentimental. Webster's patron, Christopher Gore, had
resided for several years in London, and, like Rufus King, had
returned sympathetic with the British people. At times this
pro-British feeling, as in the case of Senator Timothy Pickering,
savored of Anglomania, and to this extreme Webster was not
disposed to go. Like most of his Federalist associates, how-
ever, he reasoned that the success of England in the contest
with the "detestable tyrant," Napoleon, was essential to the
welfare of an Anglo-Saxon country like the United States;
and he was fearful that the Embargo might precipitate open
war with Great Britain, thus weakening that nation at the
crisis when all her resources were needed. The policy of the
Federalists was dictated mainly by economic considerations.
It was because of our carrying trade that they wished to rid
themselves of the Embargo and to preserve peace with England.

The reaction in New England against Jefferson showed it-
self in the presidential election of 1808, when New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, and Rhode Island all went for Pinckney. 3 In
the rest of the country, however, Republicanism was still
strong. The Federalist candidates secured forty-seven elec-
toral votes as compared with fourteen in 1804; but James
Madison was triumphantly carried into the White House,

1 " When the Tenth Congress assembled for its winter session, on November 7, 1808,
no sensible man in the United States doubted that the embargo was a failure. It had
destroyed the commerce and impoverished the sailors and ship-owners it was supposed
to protect ; as an instrument of coercion it had proved futile." (Morison, The Life
and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, II, I.)

2 Webster's pamphlet may be found in the National Edition, XV, 564 ff., reprinted
from a rare copy in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

3 At this period, parties were very evenly divided in New Hampshire. The Repub-
lican Legislature passed, June 14, 1808, an address to President Jefferson, compliment-
ing him upon his record. In the following autumn, however, the state cast its electoral
vote for Pinckney and King.

132 DANIEL WEBSTER

there to continue the work of his predecessor, to whom he
was indebted for his office. The full vigor of the opposition
was not revealed until after the passage of the so-called "Force
Act," of January 9, 1809, which bestowed upon government
officials almost unlimited power to carry out the provisions
of the Embargo. . . . Then came the explosion. Never
had the Federalists, even in 17985 claimed or exercised such
autocratic authority as that now assumed by the Jeffersonians.
For the moment, the tactical advantage passed to the Federal-
ists. The General Court of Massachusetts denounced both
the Embargo and the Force Act as unconstitutional. Town
meetings sent in their protests from all over New England. 1
The grumbling at dinner tables, the threats of disunion, the
demands for repeal, became more emphatic. 2 Even Northern
Republicans were beginning to join with the Federalists against
the administration. At last, three days before the close of his
term, Jefferson yielded, and the Embargo was withdrawn.

He himself must have been aware that his plan had failed.
Our trade had not been absolutely indispensable to England
and France. Conceived with the best intentions, the Em-
bargo had almost ruined our commerce. It had weakened
our national morale by its tacit assumption that it is better
to be safe than to fight ; and it had insidiously led the Repub-
lican Party into a justification of despotism. 3 In retaliation,
the Federalists had taken refuge in a sectionalism which,
before another decade had passed, was to be their destruction.

As a resident of Portsmouth, Webster had identified himself
with the Federalists. He cast his first vote there on March
8, 1808, when the citizens met in town meeting and balloted
for Governor, as they did throughout the state. John Lang-

1 In his reminiscences, Jefferson wrote, " I felt the foundation of the government
shaken under my feet by the New England townships/'

2 The New Hampshire Gazette, in Portsmouth, was hard put to it to meet the slashing
arguments of its Federalist rival, the Portsmouth Oracle. Jefferson, who was really
astonished at the whirlwind which he had raised, wrote, " I did not expect a crop of so
sudden and rank growth of fraud and open opposition by force could have grown up
in the United States."

8 See Henry Adams, United States, IV, 413 ff,, for a full and adequate review of the
disastrous consequences of the Embargo.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 133

don, the popular Republican, had still enough prestige to win
the election, in spite of the resentment against the Embargo.
In the following spring, however, Webster and his friends
induced Jeremiah Smith to resign as Chief Justice of the
Superior Court and accept the Federalist nomination for
Governor, and he defeated Langdon by a majority of two
hundred. A year later, after the abandonment of the Embargo,
the Republicans regained their ascendancy, and Langdon had
a small margin over Smith. On July 3, 1810, Webster was
appointed chairman of a committee to arouse Federalist en-
thusiasm in Portsmouth and its vicinity.

Having secured the repeal of the Embargo, the Federalists
were disposed to be quiet. Nor did the Madison Administra-
tion have any plan for positive action. Uncertain what to do,
Congress passed a new Non-Intercourse Act, forbidding
American vessels to trade with either England or France until
the offensive measures of those countries had been withdrawn,
but allowing commerce with other nations. Erskine, the
British Minister at Washington, promised, on behalf of his
government, that the Orders in Council would be abandoned
if the United States would cease to enforce the Non-Intercourse
Act against Great Britain. Trade was resumed with England,
and the spirits of the Portsmouth merchants were buoyant.
And then Canning, declaring that Erskine had exceeded his
instructions, repudiated the agreement, and the quarrel was
revived. Madison had shown himself willing to be on good
terms with England. Now that his overtures had been
openly rejected, he was ready to try what France had to propose.

Still in a temporizing mood, Congress, on May i, 1810, passed
what was known as "Macon's Bill, No. 2," authorizing the
President, if either France or England would revoke her re-
strictions against our commerce, to put the Non-Intercourse
Act in operation against the rival belligerent. This naive
experiment in international bribery induced the crafty Napoleon
to notify our Minister, through his Foreign Secretary, that
he would abandon the Berlin and Milan Decrees on Novem-
ber i, 1 8 10, if, during the interval, the British would repeal

i 34 DANIEL WEBSTER

their Orders in Council or the United States should cause its
rights to be respected by England. Although this promise was
made merely in an informal note, Madison grasped it with re-
lief and elation, and, reopening our relations with France,
declared our trade with England closed after February a, 1811.

The bickering, the recrimination, and the interchange of
diplomatic notes still continued. Napoleon, on April 28, 1811,
rather vaguely repealed the obnoxious edicts, but his fleet
still continued to capture American vessels for violating them.
He was playing his usual devious game, marked by evasions
and falsehoods, and he must have smiled cynically as he
watched the two Anglo-Saxon countries debating whether
or not the Berlin and Milan Decrees had really been revoked.
Meanwhile other incidents were exacerbating the bitterness
between us and England. Our ships were still being forcibly
searched; our seamen were being impressed from our decks
by prowling British cruisers ; and there were ominous clashes
between British and American war vessels. People were
raising the cry of "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." But,
even with such provocation, the New England Federalists
preferred peace to the hazards of battle.

A new factor, however, was now to be reckoned with. Along
our frontier appeared a group of aggressive young men, full
of military ardor, resentful of insults, and eager for national
expansion. They wanted to wrest Canada from England,
Florida from Spain, and Texas from Mexico. With their
anger stirred by our grievances, these adventurous spirits
saw an opportunity to realize their ambitions. The uprising
of Tecumseh, backed by British encouragement, followed by
the Battle of Tippecanoe (November 7, 1811), offered another
pretext for war. Why should not the American republic
stretch from the Isthmus of Panama to the Arctic ? By a
paradox, it was not commercial New England which ultimately
led us into conflict with Great Britain, but rather the West
and the Southwest, alarmed by the alliance between the
Indian tribes and the British, and craving some outlet for their
energies.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 135

The Twelfth Congress, meeting in the autumn of 1811, was
controlled by audacious men, led by Henry Clay and John
Caldwell Calhoun. They were disgusted with "peaceable
coercion/' which had been tried but had accomplished nothing.
Of the members from New Hampshire, all of them Re-
publicans, three were for war, and one of them, John Adams
Harper, 1 was the author of the statement, "To me, sir, it ap-
pears that the Author of Nature has marked our limits in the
south, by the Gulf of Mexico ; and on the north, by the regions
of eternal frost/' President Madison sent a vigorous message
to Congress, threatening a breach with England, and it was
soon apparent that the expansionists were in the saddle. 2
John Randolph correctly analyzed the situation when he said,
"Agrarian cupidity, not maritime right, urges the war/*
Through the winter the discussion continued, and finally,
after another message from Madison, the House of Representa-
tives voted, seventy-nine to forty-nine, for war. A study of
the vote shows that the South, with Kentucky, Tennessee,
and Ohio, was virtually solid for the administration; while
the Eastern and Middle states were in opposition. Two
weeks later the Senate concurred by a vote of nineteen to thir-
teen, and the formal declaration was made on June 18. Only
five days later, the British Cabinet repealed all its Orders in
Council, thus settling most of the American complaints. If
there had been a transatlantic cable, much bloodshed might
have been averted. Even a little more patience on the part
of the "War Hawks" might have made a conflict unnecessary.
As it was, fighting continued, both on land and sea, for many
months.

1 John Adams Harper (1779-1816), born in Derryfield, New Hampshire, attended
the Phillips Exeter Academy, began to practice law in Sanbornton, and moved to
Meredith Bridge (now Laconia) in 1806. He was Clerk of the State Senate, served in
the New Hampshire Lower House, and was elected to the Twelfth Congress as a War
Democrat. He was a leading figure during the first session, and his speeches did much
to stimulate a war spirit. His defeat in 1812 removed him from political life, and he
died disappointed four years later.

2 For an excellent discussion of the causes of the War of 1812, see Expansionists of
1812, by Julius W. Pratt (Macmillan, 1925), which explains the rise of the doctrine of
" Manifest Destiny " in the West and Southwest.

136 DANIEL WEBSTER

Webster's position throughout the debate in Congress was
typical of that of the New Hampshire Federalists. They
had demanded government aid for the protection of their com-
merce ; they had objected to the Embargo because it destroyed
their trade; but they did not want war. They saw clearly
that it would be disastrous to importers and exporters, and
that it would give political preponderance to the West and
South. They were, furthermore^ on general principles unwill-
ing to break off friendly relations with England. The War
of 1812 was precipitated, not by the section which had suf-
fered most from British depredations, but by that which hoped
for an increase of territory as part of the terms of peace.

It was easy to make a declaration of war, but the actual
fighting was a different matter. The United States was
pitiably unprepared for the emergency. Although a clash
had been imminent for several years, there were only sixteen
vessels in our navy, which, under Jefferson, had been allowed
to disintegrate and rot at the wharves. Our army was badly
organized and poorly officered. Our frontier was long and
exposed to attack. We were in no condition for facing even
a third-rate power. Hostilities had hardly begun before
General William Hull made a disgraceful surrender of his
troops at Detroit. The nation was certainly not a unit, and
the Federalists, always opposed to the war, were now resolved
to do nothing to win it. We might postpone disaster, but no
one familiar with our vulnerability could doubt what the
outcome would be, especially if England, freed from her long
contention with Napoleon, should concentrate her veteran
navy and army upon us.

The news of the declaration of war had hardly reached
Portsmouth before Daniel Webster's opportunity arrived.
His views on the subject were no secret. It was natural that
the Washington Benevolent Society, 1 made up of Federalists,

1 Organizations bearing this name had been formed in many sections of New England
during Jefferson's administrations, the object being to unite the Federalists under the
gis of " The Father of His Country " and to give the impression that the Federalists,
in opposing Jefferson and the Republicans, were carrying on the Washington tradition.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 137

or, as they chose to style themselves, the "Friends of
Peace," should invite him to deliver their Independence
Day Address. On the Fourth of July, in 1812, there were two
patriotic celebrations in Portsmouth. The Republicans held
a "giant mass meeting/' with William Claggett, Esquire, as
the orator, and followed this with a jubilant dinner at Frost's
Hotel. 1 On the same Saturday morning, the Washington
Benevolent Society, escorted by the gorgeously uniformed
"Gilman Blues,'' marched through the streets to "Rev. Mr.
Ballou's meeting-house, in pleasant street," where, after an
invocation by the Reverend Mr. Parker and the reading of
The Legacy of Washington 2 by Major Samuel Larkin, Webster
delivered his address. 3 The procession then reformed and
paraded to "Underwood's Rope Walk/' where more than
four hundred citizens joined in a collation. It was one of
Portsmouth's memorable days.

To those who lived through the World War and observed
its psychology, it will seem incredible that Daniel Webster and
the "Friends of Peace" could have opposed the War of 1812
without bringing upon themselves the charge of disloyalty
and being persecuted as "pacifists" or "undesirable persons."
We had probably even more direct provocation for challenging
England in 1812 than for fighting Germany in 1917. Yet
at a public gathering, on the anniversary of our national inde-
pendence, Webster expressed himself as out of sympathy with
Madison's foreign policy a policy which three out of New
Hampshire's five Congressmen had approved. His earlier

1 The Republican New Hampshire Gazette said on July 7, i8ia, of this celebration:
" It was the spontaneous effusion of honest zeal, of patriotic ardor, of disinterested
feeling for their grossly insulted and much injured country, towards whose altar the old
and young were eagerly pressing, there to renew the oath TO LIVE FREE OR DIE ! "
The Gazette ostentatiously refrained from mentioning the Federalist ceremonies on the
same day. Claggett graduated from Dartmouth in 1808 and had only recently been
admitted to the bar.

2 This was evidently Washington's Farewell Address* a favorite document with
the Federalists.

3 The Portsmouth Oracle, decidedly Federalist b point of view, reported on July n :
" An address was delivered before the Society by Daniel Webster, Esq., in a more
impressive and eloquent manner than we ever witnessed on a similar occasion." The
Oracle made no reference in its columns to the Republican celebration of the same date.

138 DANIEL WEBSTER

occasional addresses had been largely conventional, safe, and
platitudinous, and only rarely partisan in temper. Now he
burst out in a strongly Federal utterance, in which he con-
demned the government for leading us into an unjustifiable
war. 1

After some characteristic paragraphs praising Washington
as a statesman "whose conduct was the result of well-consid-
ered and settled principles/' Webster went on to show that
the Federal Constitution was originally adopted "for no
single reason so much as for the protection of commerce/'
which, under the ineffective Articles of Confederation, had
been in distress ; that, because of the aid offered by the Con-
stitution, a large and lucrative shipping trade had been built
up, to the immense advantage of "every interest and every
class of the community"; that the subsequent "total aban-
donment of all provision for our naval defense " under Jeffer-
son 2 was a colossal blunder in that it left our fleet exposed to
an enemy; that Washington, facing crises far more ominous,
had managed, "by able and impartial negotiations/' to avoid
armed conflicts with European countries ; that it was unjust
to single out England and not to proceed with equal vigor
against France, with whom there was "still abundant cause
of war"; and that the War of 1812 was "premature and in-
expedient," undertaken ostensibly for the benefit of merchants,
but likely to bring about their ruin. 3 Webster's aversion to
Napoleonic France was like the horror felt by many respectable
Americans for "Red Russia" during the aftermath of the
World War; and he closed his address with the fervent dec-
laration that he and the "Friends of Peace" would never
allow the "unhallowed hosts" of France to land on our shores

1 This Address Is printed in the National Edition, XV, 583 ff., from a version pub-
lished by the Oracle Press, in Portsmouth.

2 The Federalists were accustomed to pass quietly over the fact that the bill allowing
the President, at his discretion, to reduce our naval force to thirteen vessels was signed
by the Federalist President, John Adams, on March 3, 1801, as one of the last acts of
his administration.

8 At that moment, Webster did not realize the significance of the expansionist
movement along the frontier, but he saw clearly that New England would be the
section to suffer most through the war.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 139

without resisting to the death. . . . His voice was not the
only one raised that day in protest against the war. All over
New England the opposition was becoming articulate. At
the Independence Day Banquet of the Boston Federalists
one of the toasts drunk with the most enthusiasm was : " The
Existing War the Child of Prostitution. May No American
Acknowledge It Legitimate /"

There were uncompromising Federalists who believed that
New England, in view of the unsympathetic attitude of the
administration, had sufficient justification for leaving the
Union ; and the possibility of secession was frequently hinted
at in the correspondence of Northern statesmen. The eco-
nomic situation was precisely the reverse of that which existed
in the "1830'$," when South Carolina was convinced that the
North was conspiring to ruin her. So strong is the instinct
of self-preservation that any section of the Union is likely to
contemplate separation when it finds its welfare threatened
by the central government. Those who, in 1812, held to the
"compact theory" of the Union had good precedents to quote
and plausible arguments to advance. On several occasions
since Washington took the oath of office, Individual states
had claimed the right to nullify Congresssional enactments
and had asserted their authority as superior, under certain
conditions, to that of Congress. 1 The Virginia and Kentucky
Resolutions the first drawn up by Madison, the second
mainly by Jefferson had, in 1798, declared the Alien and
Sedition Bills unconstitutional and had defiantly announced
that those two states would resist their operation. Indeed,
the Virginia Resolutions had set forth the doctrine that,
whenever the Federal Government assumes powers not dele-
gated to it by the states, "its acts are unauthoritative, void,
and are of no force."

But suggestions of separation had not arisen entirely from

1 At a later date, William Rawle's A View of the Constitution of the United States
(1825), used at the United States Military Academy at West Point when Grant and
Lee were students there, taught the doctrine that a state has a right to withdraw from
the Union without being in rebellion. Rawle was a leader of the Philadelphia bar and
long an attorney for the Bank of the United States.

140 DANIEL WEBSTER

Republican sources. With the triumph of Jefferson in 1800,
the disgruntled Federalists, now for the first time in a minority,
had meditated the creatioli of a Northern Confederacy ; and
members of the notorious "Essex Junto" had seriously talked
over such a project. 1 These individualists maintained that
each state, having of its own free will entered the Federal
compact, had the privilege of withdrawing from it, just as the
member of a corporation, dissatisfied with its management,
resigns after due notice. That they never pushed through
their scheme was owing to their inability to secure the support
of certain influential leaders without whose approval they
dared not go on.

In 1808, during the turmoil occasioned by the Embargo
Act, separatist sentiment in the Northeast again flared up,
and might have been dangerous if the repeal of the offensive
measure had not come when it did. The acquisition of Loui-
siana had been regarded by the New England Federalists as a
despotic act ; and when it was proposed to admit the Territory
of Orleans to the Union as the State of Louisiana, Josiah
Quincy announced on the floor of the House of Representa-
tives (January 14, 1811) that, if the bill were passed, "the
bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved," and declared that
it would then be the duty of some of the states "to prepare
definitely for a separation; amicably if they can, violently
if they must. 11

Proud and sensitive minorities usually try every device
for escaping from the tyranny of immovable majorities. If
Daniel Webster, as a faithful Federalist, had lent an ear to
those who were dallying with the project of a Northern Con-
federacy, it would not have been unexpected. Nevertheless
he claimed to be an adherent of the Union. In his Portsmouth
Address, he lamented the commencement and continuation

1 The Essex Junto so named because it comprised a small group of statesmen from
Essex County, Massachusetts Included Timothy Pickering, Fisher Ames, Theophilus
Parsons, George Cabot, and others, representing the " upper classes." Most of them
were rich, well-educated, and socially prominent, and they were aristocratic in all their
political theories. The democracy which Jefferson represented and advocated was to
them peculiarly abhorrent.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 141

of the strife with the mother country. He felt that it would
endanger rather than secure our rights upon the sea. He
shuddered at the prospect of being thrown into an alliance
with the detested Bonaparte. And yet, when he came to sug-
gest a possible course of action, he said :

With respect to the war, in which we are now involved, the course
which our principles require us to pursue cannot be doubtful. It is
now the law of the land, and as such we are bound to regard
it. Resistance and insurrection form no parts of our creed. The
disciples of Washington are neither tyrants in power, nor rebels out.
If we are taxed, to carry on this war, we shall disregard certain dis-
tinguished examples, and shall pay. If our personal services are
required, we shall yield them to the precise extent of our Constitu-
tional liability. At the same time, the world may be assured that we
know our rights, and shall exercise them. We shall express our opin-
ions on this, as on every other measure of government, I trust with-
out passion, I am certain without fear. We have yet to learn that
the extravagant progress of pernicious measures abrogates the duty
of opposition, or that the interest of our native land is to be aban-
doned, by us, in the hour of her thickest dangers, and sorest necessity.
By the exercise of our Constitutional right of suffrage, by the peace-
able remedy of election, we shall seek to restore wisdom to our councils,
and peace to our country. 1

This was a statesmanlike utterance. Seldom had the
duty of a loyal but disapproving citizen, in an hour of national
peril, been asserted more frankly. The right of the individual
American to disagree with a governmental policy and to
criticize it openly was courageously maintained. There were,
of course, sections of the United States in which Webster's
doctrines were not altogether palatable. In Portsmouth
itself, he was probably in a minority. But among the "Friends
of Peace," his words were accepted as gospel, and they ap-
plauded and concurred. It must be reiterated, however, that
Webster never refused to aid the government when called upon
to fulfill his obligations as a citizen.

Because of this Independence Day Address, Webster was

1 National Edition, XV, 594.

14* DANIEL WEBSTER

conceded the supremacy among the younger Federalists in
Rockingham County, no one of whom had his eloquence or his
skill in argument. His speech, printed by the Oracle in a
diminutive broadside, went quickly through two editions;
newspapers throughout New England commented on its vigor
and courage; and puzzled voters seeking guidance turned
to him, as they always do when a leader appears. Although
he was only thirty years old and without political experience,
his success at the bar had given him assurance, and he did
not disappoint those who relied upon him.

While the inadequate but plucky American navy was pre-
paring to face heavy odds and General Hull was waiting vainly
at Sandwich for the Canadian yeomen to enroll under his
standard, a meeting of the Federalists of Rockingham County
was called for August 5, 1812, at Brentwood, about five miles
west of Exeter. 1 Brentwood is to-day hardly more than a
hamlet, away from the main thoroughfare, and looking as if
the world had passed it by. It was, however, situated near
the geographical centre of the county, and easily reached by
coach or carriage from every point. The gathering was to
have been held in the meetinghouse, but, as party after party
drove up, it was apparent that they could not all be accom-
modated indoors, and arrangements were hastily improvised
for seating them under what the Portsmouth Oracle called
"the great canopy of Heaven." A platform was nailed to-
gether under the shade of a tall pine, and there, before an
audience of more than two thousand, the Honorable Samuel
Tenney, of Exeter, took the chair. An Epping clergyman
pronounced the invocation, after which the Honorable George
Sullivan, then a member of Congress and one of Webster's
rivals in the law, delivered an address, said by enthusiastic

1 The notice printed in the Portsmouth Oracle^ July 25, 1812, reads: "A Meeting
of the Friends of Peace, of the County of Rockingham, without regard to former Political
Distinctions, will be holden at Brentwood, on Wednesday, the 5th day of August next,
at ten o'clock A.M. Every lover of Honorable Peace is requested to attend. It is
expected the meeting will be numerous and respectable." It was hoped that such a
call might appeal to certain Republicans who, because of business interests, were
opposed to the war, and might, consequently, be willing to join with the Federalists
in denouncing it.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 143

partisans to contain "great political truths, conclusive and
convincing arguments, enforced in language, elegant, impres-
sive, and energetic." Sullivan was then a better-known
figure than Webster, and his speech was printed in full in all
the Federalist papers in New Hampshire. The assembly
then adjourned until the afternoon in order to allow the com-
mittees to prepare their reports and the guests to enjoy their
basket luncheons on the village common. 1

Webster had been appointed chairman of a committee
instructed to prepare a memorial, among the other members
being Nathaniel Oilman and George Sullivan, both of
Exeter, Colonel Bradbury Cilley, of Nottingham, and
Thomas W. Thompson, his first tutor in the law, who had
since moved to Concord. Notified in advance what his
duties would be, Webster had drafted a suitable document,
which was formally approved by the committee. On that
still and sultry afternoon, he read to the throng what has
since been known as the "Rockingham Memorial," addressed
to "James Madison, Esquire, President of the United States/*
It was adopted unanimously, amid lusty cheers from Federal-
ist throats.

In language sonorous but restrained, Webster recapitulated
the familiar grievances and reviewed the events of the pre-
ceding five years. He perceived in the General Government
"a disposition to embarrass and enthrall commerce by re-
peated restrictions," and to make war "by shutting up our
own ports." He and the "Friends of Peace" were quite ready
to shoulder arms if their rights and liberties required the
sacrifice, but they could not see that the breach with Eng-
land was warranted by "justice, necessity, and expediency."
The number of cases of impressment by British ships had
been "extravagantly exaggerated." Those sections of the
country which were maritime and which, therefore, might be

1 The Portsmouth Oracle described the gathering editorially as " indeed the solemn
assembly of the people," and proudly reported : '* The greatest harmony and order
prevailed throughout die day. Not the slightest disturbance or irregularity took
place."

144 DANIEL WEBSTER

supposed to be most seriously disturbed by impressments were
those unalterably opposed to the war. The army and navy
were unprepared for emergencies, and the Republican adminis-
tration, although long aware of the imminence of hostilities, had
done nothing for our protection. The reasons for going to
war with Napoleon were even more cogent than those for
fighting Great Britain. Certainly the Federalists of Rocking-
ham County would in no event "assist in uniting the Republic
of America with the military despotism of France." This,
however, was the only ultimatum in the appeal, and Webster
closed with a statement which was dignified and temperate :

It only remains for us, to express our conscientious convictions,
that the present course of measures will prove most prejudicial and
ruinous to the country, and to supplicate the government to adopt
such a system as shall restore to us the blessings of peace and com-
merce. 1

One or two paragraphs in the Rockingham Memorial have
sometimes been cited by historians to prove that Daniel
Webster at this period was not unwilling to see New England
separated from the Union. In view of charges later made
by his political foes, it is important to know precisely what
his language was. Fortunately it was neither ambiguous or

evasive :

We shrink from the separation of the states, as an event fraught
with incalculable evils, and it is among our strongest objections to
the present course of measures, that they have, in our opinion, a very
dangerous and alarming bearing on such an event. If a separation of
the states ever should take place, it will be, on some such occasion,
when one portion of the country undertakes to control, to regulate,
and to sacrifice, the interest of another; when a small and heated
majority in the Government, taking counsel of their passions, and not
of their reason, contemptuously disregarding the interests, and per-
haps stopping the mouths, of a large and respectable minority, shall
by hasty, rash, and ruinous measures threaten to destroy essential
rights ; and lay waste the most important interests. 2

1 National Edition, XV, 610. * Ibid., p. 609.

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 145

This was but a simple statement of fact, accompanied by a
warning. It indicated no desire on the part of Webster, or of
those whom he represented, to withdraw from the Union.
On the contrary, as if suspecting that he might be misconstrued,
he took pains in the next paragraph to clarify his position
so that there could be no doubt of his loyalty :

It shall be our most fervent supplication to Heaven to avert both
the event and the occasion; and the Government may be assured,
that the tie which binds us to the Union, will never be broken, by us. 1

Webster was unmistakably incensed at the repeated blows
to Portsmouth's prosperity; he despised the administration
then in power; and he was fearful that its policies might
endanger the Union. When the Governors of three states
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island refused,
even at the formal request of the Secretary of War, to call out
their militia, and when Federalists everywhere were declining
to subscribe to war loans, Webster's gloomy forecasts had
some justification. But, although apprehensive of such a
cleavage, Webster also deplored it.

The Rockingham Memorial was extensively quoted in the
press, and was hailed with enthusiasm by Federalist papers. 2
By the Republicans, it was greeted with the sneers and in-
difference customarily bestowed by partisans upon the argu-
ment of a political enemy. 3 President Madison made no
acknowledgment or reply.

1 National Edition, XV, 609-10.

2 The New York Evening Posf, in printing the full text of the Memorial, remarked
that other important material had been omitted in order to satisfy the popular demand.
The Philadelphia Freeman 9 s Journal said of it, " It is one of the most interesting, elo-
quent, and powerful appeals to the judgment and justice of our Administration we
have ever read." Webster himself thought that it was " of a tone and strain less vulgar
than such things are prone to be."

3 A long letter appeared in two installments of the New Hampshire Gazette for August
1 8 and September i, 1812, accusing Webster of inconsistency in his attitude, towards
England, and quoting passages from his Concord Oration of July 4, 1806, and the
Portsmouth Oration of July 4, 1812, to prove the point. It ended: "Perhaps even
the orator may improve by experience; and be more cautious in the future of vain
boasting. * This is a consummation devoutly to be wished/ Such an event would
add to his fame and happiness, and promote the prosperity of his country. American
patriots, who are his best friends, would hail him welcome to their fraternity and real
Americans will join in the exclamation of AMEN."

146 DANIEL WEBSTER

Before the Brentwood gathering broke up, Daniel Webster
was nominated, on a so-called "Peace Ticket," as a Repre-
sentative in Congress from New Hampshire. His Independ-
ence Day Address had made him the outstanding Federalist
candidate in Rockingham County for office in the state or the
nation; 1 but, according to William Plumer, when it was first
suggested that he go actively into politics, Webster rejected
the idea on the ground that he was poor and must attend to
his business as a lawyer. Within a few hours, however, he
had reconsidered his impulsive decision and had written to
Jeremiah Smith, confessing that he should not decline a seat
in Congress if elected. "As to the law," he said, "I must
attend to that too, but honor after all is worth more than
money. " 2

The delegation from New Hampshire in the House of Rep-
resentatives, hitherto numbering five, had been increased in
1812 to six, and the candidates of both parties were placed on
a general ticket to be voted for throughout the state. The
slate prepared at Brentwood included, besides Webster, Colonel
Bradbury Cilley, of Nottingham, Honorable William Hale,
of Dover, Samuel Smith, Esquire, of Peterborough, Honorable
Roger Vose, of Walpole, and Jeduthun Wilcox, Esquire, of
Orford. Somewhat later, on September 10, the Republicans
held their convention at Kingston Plains, the only one of their
Congressmen to be renominated being the "War Hawk,"
John A. Harper. During this summer, the caustic Isaac Hill,
editor of the New Hampshire Patriot, first recognized the
dangerous qualities in Daniel Webster and began a virulent
attack which hardly ceased until 1850. Hill referred to the
Portsmouth Oracle as "Daniel Webster's paper," and dwelt
on its "stupidity and malevolence." It was not, however,
an administration year, and, at the November election, the
entire Federalist ticket was elected, Webster, with 18,597

1 The Keene Sentinel for August 29, 1812, said, ** We rejoice to find the list headed
with the name of Daniel Webster, Esq., of Portsmouth, a gentleman of commanding
talents and undoubted patriotism."

2 Letter of William Plumer to George Ticknor, April 2, 1853, in National Edition,
XVII, 547-

FIRST ADVENTURES IN POLITICS 147

votes, running second only to Vose. It was long since the
New Hampshire Federalists had won such an overwhelming
victory. Thus, in his thirty-first year, Webster was chosen
to that office which his father had coveted long and vainly,

Webster must now have felt that he had at last reached an
arena where his talents would have sufficient scope. His
success is remarkable because he had hitherto held no office
in town, county, or state. Without having served any ap-
prenticeship, he had, by a single speech, become conspicuous
even among those who had long been active in politics. Rarely
indeed does so young a man, with no discipline whatever
in legislative affairs, step from a law office into the National
Capitol. Webster may possibly, as Lodge asserted, have
matured late, but he had accomplished much at an age when
many a prospective statesman is toiling obscurely.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION

Thou

Whom the rich heavens did so endow
With eyes of power and Jove's own brow,
With all the massive strength that fills
Thy home-horizon's granite hills.

WHITTIER, " The Lost Occasion "

Wholly inexperienced in public affairs, my first object is to comprehend
the objects, understand the maxims, and imbibe the spirit of the first ad-
ministration, persuaded as I am that the principles which prevailed in the
Cabinet and Councils of that period, form the only anchorage in which our
political prosperity and safety can find any hold in this dangerous and stormy
time,

WEBSTER, Letter to Pickering, December n, 1812

ON a Tuesday morning in June,, 1813, there was a quaint scene
at the White House, then referred to in Washington as the
"Palace." President Madison, weakened by several days of
fever, lay propped up on pillows, a nightcap on his head and his
pretty wife, Dolly, as a nurse by his side. To the sick chamber
were admitted young Congressman Webster, of New Hamp-
shire, and John Rhea, "old Rhea," of Tennessee, who
had been designated by Mr. Speaker Clay to transmit certain
resolutions passed by the House, and asking questions which,
it was hoped, might embarrass the Executive. The invalid
received the papers and replied, with his habitual quiet
courtesy, "They will be attended to/' Two days later, Web-
ster, with inconsiderate glee, wrote to a friend, mentioning
Madison's illness and adding, "I think he will find no relief
from my prescription." Webster had already addressed
Madison in the Rockingham Memorial, but this was his first
experience in bearding a President in his home. The incident,

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 149

though trivial, is symbolical of Webster's attitude throughout
the War of 1812. Whenever the administration was in straits,
he was on hand to annoy those responsible for its actions.

During the months just before he took the Congressional
oath of office, Webster was much in the public eye. Ports-
mouth politics were seething during the winter of 1813. While
the New Hampshire Gazette was printing the bulletins of
Napoleon's Grand Army on its retreat from Moscow, the
Federalists and Republicans, whose antagonism the French
Emperor had indirectly done so much to promote, were en-
gaged in one of their periodical clashes. Early in January,
it was announced that the veteran Federalist, John Taylor
Gilman, would accept a nomination for Governor by the
"Friends of Peace." Governor William Plumer 1 was once
more the Republican candidate and the perennial rivals
fought a closely contested battle. During the campaign
Webster dwelt effectively on the damage done to New Hamp-
shire commerce by the war, 2 and assailed Plumer for calling
out the militia. The March election reversed the situation,
and the Federalists were once more in the saddle, winning
both branches of the Legislature and swinging Gilman into
office. 3 On Saturday, June 5, the Governor took the oath
at Concord, and the state was again in what Webster believed
to be safe hands.

Before that day arrived, however, Daniel Webster had set
out on his first great political adventure. By an act of the
preceding session, the Thirteenth Congress was to assemble

1 No majority having been secured by either candidate in the popular vote of 1812,
Plumer had been elected by the Legislature (June 4, 1812), by a vote of 104 against
82 for Gilman.

2 General Lyman (Memorials of Daniel Webster, II, 42-44) described dramatically
one of the Federalist meetings during this campaign, when the crowd refused to listen
to any orator but Webster and responded to his remarks with " thunders of applause."

3 The vote for Governor was 18,107 for Gilman against 17,410 for Plumer. The
Portsmouth Oracle announced on March 20, 1813, " We feel much pleasure in announc-
ing the restoration of New Hampshire to the true principles of the Washington school."
Webster's friend, Thomas W. Thompson, was chosen Speaker of the House by a vote
of 106 to 75, and the Senate was Federalist, 9 to 3. After Dr. John Goddard had
declined an election as United States Senator, the Legislature agreed on Jeremiah
Mason as a successor to Charles Cutts.

i 5 o DANIEL WEBSTER

on May 24, 1813; and he was at his desk, in Washington,
filled with curiosity and expectation, when the House of Rep-
resentatives was called to order. He had gone to the capital
alone, for Mrs. Webster had little Grace to care for, and was
also expecting another child in midsummer. He made most
of the journey by mail coach, following a route through Boston,
Hartford, New Haven, New York, Princeton, and Baltimore, 1
and he was ten days on the road. The trip from Portsmouth
to Washington in those days was much more hazardous than
a voyage to Europe in the twentieth century.

The national capital was then a city of fewer than ten thou-
sand people, 2 which Webster, not without justification, called
"this dismal place." The original plan of Major L'Enfant
was magnificent, but, because of inertia and lack of funds,
it had not been carried out. The corner stone of the Capitol
had been laid as early as 1794, and the north and south wings
were in use in 1813; but the space between them, intended
for the dome, was merely an improvised passageway roofed over
with rough boards, and no additional appropriation had been
passed by Congresss since 1 8 io. 3 The " President's House " had
been completed in 1809, but Pennsylvania Avenue, although
boasting a few unhealthy trees planted under Jefferson's admin-
istration, was lined with ugly shanties and made a poor impres-
sion upon visitors ; and in winter its mud seemed bottomless.
Three hotels in the vicinity of Capitol Hill did all the business,
the best being the Indian Queen, on The Avenue, in front of
which hung "a large swinging sign upon which figured Poca-
hontas, painted in glaring colors." 4

1 Lyman, II, 45. Plumer, Life of William Plumer, p. 41, says that the journey from
New Hampshire to Washington in 1801 was not usually performed in less than ten or
twelve days. Jeremiah Mason, in 1814, consumed six days between Hartford and
Baltimore, his course being by stage from Hartford to Mount Pleasant (on the Hudson
River), by packet boat to New York, by boat to New Brunswick, by stage to Phila-
delphia, and by mail stage to Baltimore. Writing on November 24, 1814, from Wash-
ington, Mason said : " Yesterday Gerry died very suddenly. He had travelled from
Boston to this place in five days, which was enough to kill a younger and stouter man."

2 A census gave the population of Washington in 1807 as 5652.

3 Hazelton's The National Capitol, p. 34, has an excellent drawing of the building
as it appeared in 1814, before its destruction by the British,

4 Poore, Reminiscences of Sixty Years, I, 42.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 151

Most members of Congress lived in boarding houses, 1 paying
approximately fifteen dollars a week for attendance, wood,
candles, food, and plenty of brandy and whiskey, which was
placed on the table in decanters without extra charge. There
were no homes in Washington as luxurious as some of those
which Webster had known in Portsmouth. It was probably
his fastidiousness which led him to take up his quarters in
Georgetown, 2 three miles away, driving back and forth to the
Congressional sessions in a rickety coach. Women of culture
were not numerous, and Webster complained of the "unvary-
ing masculinity " of the society. 3 There was a good deal of
whist playing and faro gambling. The one theatre was oc-
casionally opened by a company from Philadelphia, but other
recreations were few.

Webster, of course, was seeing the city in war time, when
gayeties would naturally be curtailed. Indeed there was
always the fear that it would be besieged by the enterprising
British, who, just before Webster's arrival, had ascended
Chesapeake Bay under Admiral Cockburn, burning and
pillaging Havre de Grace and other villages, and coming un-
comfortably close to Washington. Mrs. Madison wrote, May
12, 1813, "For the last week all the city and Georgetown

1 It was estimated in 1816 that only 20 per cent of the Senators and Congressmen
lived in hotels.

2 On a drive with Peter Harvey, Webster once ordered the coachman to stop and,
pointing to an old and decaying mansion, said : " That large white house, with dilapi-
dated walls and broken fences, was the hotel where I boarded when I first entered
Congress from New Hampshire. It was then the Federalist Headquarters. Governor
Gore, Rufus King, and John Marshall were fellow-boarders. Governor Gore used to
drive out of that gate in a coach drawn by four horses, and attended by servants in
livery." Harvey names the location as Alexandria, but this is obviously a misprint
for Georgetown. (Harvey, p. 176.) William Lowndes wrote from Washington in
December 1811, " The comforts of a city are such in winter that I think I shall spend
the next (if I come here at all) in Georgetown." (Meigs, Calhoun^ I, 1 13.)

* There was another side to the social life. Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, writing
on March 13, 1814, said: " Washington possesses a peculiar interest, and to an active,
reflective, and ambitious mind, has more attractions than any other place in America.
. . . There are here peculiar facilities for forming acquaintances, for a stranger cannot
be long here, before it is generally known. The house of representatives is the lounging
place of both sexes, where acquaintance is as easily made as at public amusements."
(The First Forty Years of Washington Society , p. 94.) Doubtless Webster, in his
bachelor quarters, received quite a different impression.

152 DANIEL WEBSTER

(except the cabinet) have expected a visit from the enemy, and
were not lacking in their expressions of terror and reproach." l

Washington presented the appearance of a capital "made
to order," and its unlighted streets, disfigured with mud holes
in wet weather, were felt to be discreditable to the young
nation. Gazing at the unused planks and stones which sur-
rounded the unsightly and unfinished Capitol, the editor of
the National Intelligencer was reminded of the ruins of Rome
as described by Volney. 2 Webster did not enjoy the climate,
and he wrote to Ezekiel on Independence Day, "The weather
is already very hot; more so than ever I experienced." 3

But uncomfortable though he may have been, Webster *s
mind was intent on other matters besides architecture, society,
and climate. The Hall of Representatives, with its twenty-
four Corinthian columns and its semicircular galleries, had
been completed in 1807, and provided on the floor sufficiently
commodious quarters for the membership of 182. Here he
found that one of his friends had marked a seat for him, "in
good company" with Joseph Lewis, Jr., and Daniel Sheffey,
both of Virginia, on his left, and Joseph Pearson and William
Gaston, both of North Carolina, and Timothy Pitkin, of
Connecticut, on his right. 4 He made at once a formal call
upon President Madison, but wrote, "I did not like his looks,
any better than I like his Administration. I think LaVater
could find clearly eno in his features, Embargo, Non-Inter-
course, & War." 5

The House had little difficulty in organizing, for the ad-
ministration had a substantial working majority, 114
Republicans to 68 Federalists, and promptly elected Henry
Clay, 6 of Kentucky, as Speaker. Bold and autocratic, ready
in debate, fiery in manner, and magnetic in personality, he
was more susceptible to emotion than to reason. He was

1 Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison, p. 90.

2 Bryan, National Capital, I, 618. 3 National Edition, XVII, 237.

4 Ibid., XVI, 14. Pitkin was Clay's opponent for Speaker, and received 54 votes
to the latter's 89. 5 Ibid. y p. 15.

^Heniy Clay (1777-1852), five years older than Webster, was born in Virginia, the
son of a poor white preacher. His father died when tJfie boy was four, and, his mother

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 153

tall and thin, with gray eyes and petulant mouth, and his
rich voice and captivating smile were irresistible. With his
breezy cordiality and superficial cleverness, he combined a
talent for managing men, and he exercised over his admirers
an influence almost hypnotic. He was often politician and
demagogue as well as statesman; but in 1812 he held proudly
aloft the banner of "Young America/* and was himself prin-
cipally responsible for our aggressive policy towards Great
Britain. To his adoring followers, he was gallant "Harry of
the West," aflame with patriotic ardor, the hero of newly
settled territories and pioneer peoples. They pictured him as
a plumed knight in shining armor, riding to overthrow the
cherished idols of an old and perhaps decadent civilization
the civilization of comfort and degenerate ease in which they
suspected Webster of living. In Clay were centred all the
vague aspirations and suppressed desires of that virile and
hard-won land beyond the Alleghanies.

If Clay was all feeling, another "war hawk" John Cald-
well Calhoun, 1 of South Carolina was all logic. With his

having married again, his stepfather secured a place for him in the office of the Clerk of
the High Court of Chancery in Richmond. Licensed to practise law, he moved west to
Lexington, Kentucky, where he quickly rose to distinction. After sitting in the State
Legislature, he was elected in 1806 to fill an unexpired term in the United States Senate,
although still under the legal age for that position. At the close of his term, he became
Speaker of the Kentucky Assembly, but, in 1809, again went to the United States
Senate to complete an unexpired period. Elected to the Twelfth Congress, he was
immediately chosen Speaker and assumed the leadership of the war party. In a great
speech on January 8 and 9, 1813, he had defended Jefferson and accused New England
of having fomented a plot " that aims at the dismemberment of the Union/' His
audacity and nationalism at this period are strongly contrasted with Webster's con-
servatism and sectionalism.

1 John Caldwell Calhoun (1782-1850), two months younger than Webster, was born
in Abbeville, South Carolina, and graduated from Yale College in 1 804. He studied law
in Litchfield, Connecticut, was admitted to the bar in 1807, and opened an office at
Abbeville. He served for two sessions in the South Carolina Legislature, and, at the
age of twenty-eight, was elected to the House of Representatives, where, despite his
youth, he attracted attention and was recognized as a leader of the administration on
the floor of that body. At the first meeting of the Committee on Foreign Relations,
to which he had been appointed, Calhoun was unanimously made Chairman, and it was
he who, in his report on a section of the President's Message, sounded the first authentic
note of war, in 1811, saying, " The period has now arrived when, in the opinion of your
committee, it is the sacred duty of Congress to call forth the patriotism and the resources
of the country." When Webster took his seat, Clay and Calhoun were the outstanding
figures in the House.

154 DANIEL WEBSTER

gaunt frame and long black locks, his bushy eyebrows above
sunken sockets, he gave the impression of dynamic intensity.
He was then and later the spokesman of the aristocratic South,
the dispassionate interpreter of its troubles and its needs.
Although some people found him reserved, he made friends
readily, and there was but one opinion as to his genius for
leadership. A gentleman by birth and breeding, he could argue
fiercely without indulging in personalities; and even when
Webster opposed Calhoun's tenuous theories, he could not help
liking the man and respecting the sincerity of his motives.

The temptation to draw sharp contrasts is one which few
historians can resist, and the differences between Clay and
Calhoun are bound to impress any student of the two states-
men. Clay was impulsive ; Calhoun was cool and calculating.
Clay was sociable; Calhoun was solitary. The Kentuckian
was gay and shallow; the South Carolinian was serious and
profound. One was full of humor ; the other was so lacking in
it that he seldom smiled. Clay was flexible, quickly susceptible
to external influences, and easily moved ; Calhoun was rigid and
introspective. Finally, Clay, with all his brilliancy, was at
heart an opportunist ; while Calhoun was made of martyr stuff.

Thus, in 1813, the members of the Great Triumvirate,
Clay, Calhoun, and Webster, who were later so long to domi-
nate the Senate, came together in the Lower House. At that
moment, Clay and Calhoun were nationalists, uttering the
sentiments of the country as a whole. As time went on, how-
ever, Calhoun was to express the peculiar doctrines of the
South just as Clay those of the West and Webster those of New
England. To read the speeches of these three is to cover
American history for forty years.

Among other conspicuous members of the House were
John McLean, of Ohio, who was later to sit on the Supreme
Court Bench as the nominee of President Jackson; Charles
J. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, who, under Tyler and Polk, was
to be an influential Chairman of the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs; George M. Troup and John Forsyth, both
from Georgia, the latter afterwards Jackson's Secretary of

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 155

State ; and, from South Carolina, the brilliant William Lowndes,
who died prematurely at the age of forty, and the versatile
Langdon Cheves, Clay's successor as Speaker when the latter
resigned early in 1814 to accept a place on the Peace Commis-
sion. These men were Republicans and supporters of Madison.
Josiah Quincy, the Massachusetts Federalist who had stirred
up such a turmoil during the previous session, had declined a
reelection ; and the erratic John Randolph, half genius and
half madman, had, to the relief of Calhoun and his coterie,
been defeated by Jefferson's son-in-law, John W. Eppes.
Among Webster's allies were Colonel Timothy Pickering, of
Massachusetts, the most intolerant of the Essex Junto ; l
Alexander C. Hanson, the brilliant and caustic editor of the
Baltimore Federal Republican; and William Gaston, of North
Carolina, a new member who was to become Judge of the
Supreme Court of North Carolina. The Federalists were
relatively weak in numbers, but they included some men of
marked ability, and their quality was high. In the Senate,
which was then the less important body, were Christopher
Gore, Rufus King, and, within a few weeks, Jeremiah Mason,
whom Webster was proud to call his friends.

Webster reached Washington with a course of action care-
fully prepared. Sustained by the knowledge that his con-
stituents were back of him, he proposed to denounce the war
and to withhold his support when measures for its prosecution
were introduced. Always before him was the possibility of
embarrassing the Republican administration. It was not
a very noble ambition, and there was nothing constructive in
Webster's plan. Although his views must have been familiar
to Clay, the latter gave him an assignment on the Committee
on Foreign Relations, under Calhoun as Chairman. 2 It was a

1 Webster wrote Pickering, December n, 1812: " Among the consequences which
may grow out of recent events, I look forward to none with more pleasure than the
opportunity which may be afforded of cultivating the acquaintance of one of the masters
of the Washington school of politics." (National Edition, XVI, 1 2.)

2 March wrote Webster, from New York, May 31, 1813 : " I am glad to see by the
Intelligencer you are on the Foreign Committee ; and wish you had a majority on your
side, . . . Calhoun I don't know personally but have a high respect for his talent.
He is young and if honest may yet be open to conviction." (Cong. Lib. Misc. L)

156 DANIEL WEBSTER

distinction for a new member to be placed on a committee of
such importance.

There was no tradition in the House to restrain a new
member from asserting himself too soon. Clay had been
chosen Speaker at the opening of his first term in that body,
and Webster, at what he felt to be a moment of national
crisis, was In no mood to postpone the attack. He quickly
seized upon what he thought to be the best available issue
and made the most of it. 1 It had been asserted by the Duke
of Bassano, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, that the
revocation by Napoleon of the Berlin and Milan Decrees had
been transmitted to the French Minister at Washington for
delivery to our Secretary of State. As nothing had been
divulged by the administration regarding this alleged repeal
until after Congress had passed its declaration of war, the
Federalists suspected that President Madison had received
but had suppressed this very important information. The
Republicans naturally doubted the veracity of the French
nobleman, but Webster, with strategical skill, saw an oppor-
tunity for putting Madison on the defensive.

When routine preliminary matters had been disposed of,
Webster was ready for action, and wrote to his friend, Charles
March, 2 in New York, on Monday, June 7 :

" Tomorrow I intend to bring forward a motion, calling for infor-
mation relative to the famous Trent Decree, repealing the Berlin &
Milan Decrees. Lest some accident should prevent, you will say
nothing of this, till you see or hear more of it. If they choose to
oppose it & to bring on a general battle, we are ready." 3

1 In a speech delivered at Madison, Indiana, June i, 1837, Webster said: " Among
the luminaries in the sky of New England, the burning lights which throw intelligence
and happiness on her people, the first and most brilliant is her system of common
schools. I congratulate myself that my first speech on entering public life was in their
behalf." (National Edition, II, 253.) Where and when this speech was delivered,
I have not been able to ascertain, and there is no record of it in the Proceedings of
this Congress.

2 Charles March was a New York merchant, a son of Dr. Clement March, of Green-
land, New Hampshire, a small village about eight miles south of Portsmouth. Webster
kept him carefully informed as to everything which occurred during this session, sending
him brief letters almost every day.

8 National Edition, XVI, 19.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 157

Webster's d6but was unavoidably postponed until Thurs-
day, June 10, on which date he rose and made his first speech
in the House of Representatives, submitting five resolutions
for its consideration. 1 In his remarks, he focused attention
on the fact that, if the decree of April 1811, said to have been
transmitted to the President, had been published at the time
when it was received, the war with England would probably
not have taken place, for its appearance would have "produced
the repeal of the British orders in council'* and it was upon
this issue mainly that the question of peace or war was decided.
He declared, therefore, that the honor of the nation demanded
"a full and free inquiry into a subject of so much importance/' 2

It was said by one who was present that no member "ever
riveted the attention of the House so completely in his first
speech," 3 and this may well be true, for Webster was very
much in earnest and the Representatives were not accustomed
to his sonorous style of oratory. In the earliest edition of his
collected works the Speeches and Forensic Arguments , pub-
lished in 1831 it was not included, perhaps because Webster
did not wish then to revive recollections of the days when he
had been strongly sectional in his views. Chief Justice John
Marshall, at the time when the volume appeared, expressed
his disappointment at not finding this argument among the
contents and said to Justice Story: "I read these speeches
with very great pleasure at the time. At the time when the
first was delivered, I did not know Mr. Webster; but I was
so much struck with it, that I did not hesitate to state that

1 Webster wrote March, on the afternoon of June 10 : " The resolutions were offered
today they lie until tomorrow for consideration. What the House will do with
them, I cannot say. The question to consider them was carried 138 to 28. I have
done what I tho't my duty & am easy about the result." (National Edition, XVI, 20.)

2 A report of this speech, evidently an abstract, is printed in National Edition, XIV,
3 fF. taken from the Boston Messenger. Webster himself arranged to have the Resolu-
tions forwarded to the New York Commercial Advertiser and asked March to send
copies to Thomas W. Thompson, Ezekiel Webster, and Isaac P. Davis, of Boston,
as well as to William Garland, of Portsmouth.

8 The same observer said : " Members left their seats when they could not see the
speaker face to face, and sat down or stood on the floor fronting him. All listened
attentively and silently during the whole speech ; and when it was over, many went up
and warmly congratulated the orator." (Lyman, II, 51.)

158 DANIEL WEBSTER

Mr, Webster was a very able man, and would become one of
the very first statesmen in America, and perhaps the very
first/* l Webster's constituents were given an abstract of
it in the Portsmouth Oracle, and its effect on other sections of
the country may be surmised from an editorial in the New
York Herald y which referred to Webster as "second to none
on the floor of the House/' At a dinner in Keene, New Hamp-
shire, on July 5, one of the toasts offered was "Mr. Webster's
Resolutions, the Northern Emetic, skillfully administered.
May it operate to restore health and vigor to the body politic !"
There is probably no instance in Congressional history where
a Representative of so little legislative training produced
such a striking impression on his colleagues. From that
day it was admitted that Clay and Calhoun had a foeman
worthy of their best efforts.

Webster's resolutions precipitated a sharp debate, in the
course of which Calhoun rushed to the defense of the Adminis-
tration. It was the first of the numerous verbal duels in which
the two leaders were to take part. But the opposition had the
better of the encounter. "Poor Madison!" wrote Webster
to March on June 14. "I doubt whether he has had a night's
sleep these three weeks." 2 Again, five days later, he said :
"The fact is, the Administration are, for the moment, con-
founded. They are hard pushed in our house much harder
in the Senate. . . . They are in a sad pickle. Who cares ?" 3
Soon the Republicans realized the inadvisability of stifling
the inquiry. Objections were removed, and the resolutions
were duly passed on June 2i. 4 Webster, as we have seen,

1 Quoted in Curtis, I, 1 10.

2 National Edition, XVI, 21.
8 IKd.

4 Webster sent his version of the matter to March, June 21, 1813 : " The Resolutions
have passed unaltered, except putting in the usual saving in the last Resolution, which
was left out by accident. The last Resolution passed 93 to 68. I made no speech.
When I came to the House this morning, Calhoun told me, the motion for indefinite
postponement would be withdrawn his motion to amend withdrawn & he & some
of his friends should vote for the Resolutions as they are. I, of course, could not object
& considering the thing given up on their part, I forebore to speak. They have acted
very strangely, A dozen motions, made & withdrawn some pulling one way
some another. They do not manage like so many Solomons." (Ibid. y p. 22.)

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 159

was appointed, with John Rhea, to deliver them to the Chief
Executive.

The sequel was unexciting after such a tempest. A reply
was submitted on July 12, showing that the earliest official
intimation of the French repealing decree had been received
by our government from Barlow, our Minister to France, on
July 13, 1 8 ia, some weeks after war had been declared. Cal-
houn as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations,
to which this answer was referred, reported a resolution
approving the conduct of the President, but the House declined
to act upon it, there being too much urgent business to attend
to, and nothing more had been done at the date when Congress
adjourned on August 2, 1813.

Even before Madison's answer had been scrutinized by
Congress, Daniel Webster, convinced that he was needed
more urgently in Portsmouth than in Washington, was on his
way home. He wrote on July 6: "For four or five days I
have found myself getting out of sorts, & have determined to
stay here not much longer. So late is the period of the Ses-
sion, so hot the season, so languid is every body, that I incline
to think we shall have no general battle about the War/' l
On Saturday, July 10, he said to March: "I expected to leave
this place Tomorrow, & to be with you by the middle of
next week. But understanding that we are to hear from the
President either to-day or Monday, I shall wait a few days
longer." 2

Early in the following week, he started on his long journey
north, arriving in Portsmouth in season for the birth of his
oldest son, Daniel Fletcher Webster, on July 23. He had
been away for only a brief period. He had modestly refrained
from talking too much or too long, but he was the only mem-
ber of the New Hampshire delegation who had had anything
to say. The Federalists, sadly in need of leadership, had

1 Letter to March, National Edition, XVI, 04. On July 9, he was given leave of
absence from Sunday, July n, for the remainder of the session. Webster's last vote
was cast on Saturday, July 10, and Madison's Report was presented on the following
Monday.

2 National Edition, XVI, 25.

160 DANIEL WEBSTER

welcomed him and had accorded him a position usually con-
ceded only to veteran statesmen. 1 The fear with which he
was regarded by Clay and Calhoun was evidenced by his
removal from the Committee on Foreign Relations, of which
he had been far from a tractable member.

The second Thursday of September, 1813, had been set apart
by the President as a solemn fast day. And indeed it did seem
as if an appeal to divine Providence were our only recourse.
A series of shameful disasters, beginning with the Battle of
Queenston (October 13, 1812), had disclosed the incompetency
of our commanders and the pusillanimity of our militia.
American soldiers had not only run away from bullets; they
had stolidly refused to serve outside their own states. Never
have our armies met with such reverses as when Hull, Van
Rennsselaer, Smyth, and Dearborn were defeated in succes-
sion ; and Eustis, the Secretary of War, resigned on December
3, 1812. The only real victory of the year was won by the
navy at Lake Erie, on July 10, under Commander Oliver
Hazard Perry. In the autumn of 1813, with the crushing of
Napoleon at Leipzig and the British successes in the Spanish
peninsula, it looked as if England might soon be free to turn
all her guns on us.

Webster returned to Washington somewhat late for the
second session of the Thirteenth Congress, 2 only to be greeted
with the disconcerting news of the Portsmouth fire. While
he was hesitating whether his duty was not with his homeless
family, a letter from his dauntless wife reassured him, and,

1 The New Hampshire Patriot^ ably edited by Isaac Hill, a strong Democrat, con-
tinued during this summer its virulent attacks on Webster, In its issue for July 27,
Webster could have read that " the great Mr. Webster, who is so extremely flippant in
arguing petty suits in our courts of law, cuts but a sorry figure at Washington; his
overweening confidence and zeal cannot there supply the place of knowledge. We think
he will not be anxious again to appear in the Capitol" It spoke on August 17 of his
" imprudent and abortive attack on the administration."

2 News items in the Portsmouth Oracle indicate that Webster left for Washington on
December 11, five days after the session opened. He stopped for a few days in New
York and did not reach the capital until the evening of December 28. He reported on
Wednesday, December 29. He voted with the majority on the following day for a
resolution asking the President to give up any information explaining the failure " of
the arms of the United States on the Northern frontier."

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 161

with his fears removed, he turned from domestic to national
calamities. With premeditated malice, he became a gadfly
to the Madison administration^ prepared to sting whenever a
vulnerable spot was exposed. Although his country was
obviously in peril from a foreign foe, he preferred to hamper
rather than to help those who were entrusted with its defense.
The policy which he followed can best be illustrated by a
consideration of his stand on specific measures. When the
House, by a vote almost unanimous, approved of an inquiry
into "the causes of the failure of our arms,'* Webster declared
that the war had been "ill-judged and ill-timed in the begin-
ning/' With annoying pertinacity, he continued:

If its advocates can show satisfactorily that this war was under-
taken on grounds plainly and manifestly just ; if they can show that
it was necessary and unavoidable; that it is strictly an American
war ; that it rests solely on American grounds ; and that it grew out
of a policy just and impartial as it related to the belligerents of
Europe, if they ever make all this manifest, the war will change its
character. It will then grow as energetic as it is now feeble. It will
then become the cause of the people, and not the cause of a party,

Webster's sarcastic reference in this speech to our two
"drivelling campaigns" could not have mollified Clay and the
other "war hawks." But the member from New Hampshire
was to make himself even more disagreeable. When a resolu-
tion was introduced for inquiring into the expediency of plac-
ing the trial of citizens for treason under military jurisdiction,
Webster was at once on his feet, and, in a brief speech only
imperfectly reported, described the proposed measure as "an
enormous stride of usurpation," which took away the orderly
processes of "indictment, arraignment, and trial," substitut-
ing in their stead a military tribunal. 1 By a strange shifting
in point of view, the party of Thomas Jefferson now sponsored
an act no less subversive of individual liberty than the Federal-
ist Alien and Sedition Bills of 1798 ; while the Federalist Party
appeared in the unfamiliar guise of defender of the rights of

1 Speech on January 10, 1814 (National Edition, XIV, n ),

162 DANIEL WEBSTER

citizens. Largely because of Webster s timely protest, this
measure., although referred by a majority of eleven votes, was
never again brought up.

The first of Webster's Congressional speeches to be fully
reported was delivered on January 14, 1814, in the course of
the debate on a proposal for filling the ranks of the regular
army by offering each recruit a bounty in money and land. 1
He reminded the House that the Federalists had not brought
on the conflict; that they had, on the contrary, resorted to
every legitimate device to delay a declaration of hostilities;
and that they had predicted with some accuracy the misfor-
tunes which would result. With exasperating irony, he com-
pared the administration of James Madison with that of Lord
North in respect to incapacity and persistence in keeping up
a foolish and wasteful war. He was quite willing, he averred,
to approve measures for defense only; and he recommended
that the government abandon "futile projects of invasion,"
take up fortified positions on land, and rely on the navy for
victory. Above all, with the welfare of New England shipping
in mind, he urged that the system of commercial restrictions
be abandoned, saying :

Unclinch the iron grasp of your Embargo. Take measures for that
end before another sun sets upon you. With all the war of the" enemy
upon your commerce, if you would cease to war upon it yourselves,
you would still have some commerce. That commerce would give
you some revenue. Apply that revenue to the augmentation of your
navy. That navy will, in turn, protect your commerce.

1 Webster wrote to Ezekiel, January 30, 1814, in a letter enclosing some printed
copies of this speech : " The speech is not exactly what it ought to be. I had not time.
I had no intention of speaking till nine o*clock in the morning, and delivered the thing
about two. I could make it better, but I dare say you think it would be easier to make
a new one, than to mend it. It was well enough received at the time, and our side of
the House said they would have it in this form. So much for speeches." (National
Edition, XVII, 239.) As soon as a version reached Keene, New Hampshire, the
Sentinel advertised that a pamphlet edition, containing sixteen pages, was in press and
would be on sale " at the very low price of 6 cents single and 4 cents by the 100, 50,
or even 25 copies, for distribution.'* Comparatively unknown two years before outside
of Rockingham, Grafton, and Hillsborough counties, Webster was now recognized as
the chief spokesman of the Peace Party.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 163

These terse and pregnant sentences show a marked improve-
ment over his earlier somewhat grandiloquent style. There
is more weight in these crisp, incisive words than in the longer
balanced periods, modeled on Cicero,, to which he had been so
much addicted. In this oration, Webster attained a maturity
of expression which proved that he had profited by his court-
room and legislative experience. He was not done experi-
menting, but he had acquired a manner and a method peculiarly
his own.

Calhoun had charged that the Federalists, through their
factious opposition, were to blame for the failure of the war.
In reply, Webster declared that this opposition was not only
conscientious, but "constitutional and legal," and rested
"upon settled and sober conviction.*' "The more I perceive
a disposition to check the freedom of inquiry by extravagant
and unconstitutional pretences," he said, in ringing words,
"the firmer shall be the tone in which I shall assert, and the
freer the manner in which I shall exercise it." l

The opening act of the session, passed before Webster's
arrival, had been a new Embargo, requested by the President,
covering the coastwise and foreign trade of the country and
forbidding commerce by water, not only between different states,
but between ports in the same state. As a result of this ill-
considered measure, which Webster believed to be unconstitu-
tional and his constituents thought to be iniquitous, 2 the
residents of the island of Nantucket found themselves cut off
from all intercourse with the "Continent." When a bill was
introduced granting them relief, Webster opposed it on the
somewhat perverse ground that he would not vote to restore a
privilege of which they could not legally be divested. 3 Even
with this necessary modification, the Embargo was far from

1 National Edition, XIV, 25.

2 The Portsmouth Oracle, on Saturday, January i, 1814, complained, " In addition
to those ministers of vengeance with which it has pleased God to visit us, the Sword,
Fire, and Famine, we have again stalking amongst us, like a pestilence, the mammoth

EMBARGO."

3 The bill relieving Nantucket of these commercial restrictions was eventually
passed, Webster and seven others voting in the negative.

164 DANIEL WEBSTER

being a success, and in the following March, only three months
after it had been passed, Madison called for its repeal. Cal-
houn, in explaining the motives for this sudden reversal of
policy, showed himself very adroit, but he opened himself to
some ironic observations by Webster, who said :

Sir, a government which cannot administer the affairs of a nation
without producing so frequent and such violent alterations in the
ordinary occupations and pursuits of private life has, in my opinion,
little claim to the regard of this community. 1

With Republicans and Federalists united against it, it was
not remarkable that the Embargo was repealed by a decisive
majority. A few days later the stormy and unproductive
session was brought to a close.

There is some evidence to indicate that Webster's loyalty
to the mercantile interests of the Northeast was not unre-
warded. Writing to March on June 14, 1813, he said, in a
sentence the importance of which he brought out by under-
lining, " You must contrive some way for me to get rich as soon
as there is a peace." 2 March, who was an importer and
therefore very anxious to see all commercial restrictions re-
moved, was kept informed by Webster of everything contem-
plated by Congress. On June 29, 1813, the latter wrote March,
"Shall draw on you today or tomorrow," 3 and on November
20 he drew on the New York merchant, with the latter's con-
sent, for nine hundred dollars. With only these meagre facts
as a basis, it is impossible to ascertain the precise relation-
ship between Webster and March ; but it would not be aston-
ishing if the former had accepted remuneration for his services
in behalf of his friends in business. Such a practice would
have been considered less reprehensible then than now. To-
day similar conduct, if discovered, might subject a Repre-
sentative to congressional investigation.

Webster returned to discover that his course in Congress

1 Webster's speech " On the Repeal of the Embargo " was delivered in the House
on April 6, 1814. It is printed in National Edition, XIV, 35 ff.

2 National Edition, XVI, ax.

p. 24.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 165

was approved by most of his fellow citizens. 1 His speeches
had been printed in the local newspapers, and even those who
disagreed with his views, with few exceptions, acknowledged
his ability. 2 At the state election in March 1814, the Fed-
eralist, John Taylor Oilman, again defeated Plumer for the
Governorship. In June, Webster received the unanimous
endorsement of his party for a second term. The Republicans,
inspired by the Patriot, fought hard against him, declaring
that "the self-importance and gross egotism" which he had
displayed were disgusting and that he had "by his own ex-
travagance and folly involved himself in pecuniary difficulties
at home." 3 At the election on August 29, however, he and
the other nominees on the "Peace Ticket" had a comfortable
margin over their opponents, who attributed their failure to
the absence from the state of so many soldiers.

Meanwhile, during the summer and autumn of 1814, Dis-
aster was piling up on disaster. Napoleon's abdication in
April enabled England to release veteran troops and fresh
ships against America. It is true that our forces did well at
Lundy's Lane (July 25, 1814) and that Commodore Mac-
donough's victory on Lake Champlain lightened the gloom.
But most of our seaports were blockaded, and part of the
coast of Maine was held by the enemy. The currency was
disordered, and the President issued a pathetic appeal for

1 The Keene Sentinel, March 26, 1814, asking the question, " Who is the greatest
man in the House of Representatives, party influence aside?" said, " Mr. Webster is a
young Ajax in political disquisition, and gives every promise of a towering politician."

2 The Portsmouth Oracle, Federalist in sentiment, said;, July 23, 1814: "Even the
opposition must feel their pride secretly gratified unless party spleen has banished every
vestige of native pride from their hearts, at the lustre, shed on New Hampshire by the
pre-eminent talents of a Mason and a Webster." Even Webster's implacable foes
were compelled to concede his ability, and the New Hampshire Patriot confessed,
August 27, " He is the only one of the members from New Hampshire that has opened
his mouth." The editor of the Patriot, Isaac Hill, had gradually gained for his paper
a circulation of more than three thousand subscribers, and, recognizing that Webster
was dangerous, assailed him bitterly.

3 New Hampshire Patriot, August 2 and August 9, 1814. In the midst of the cam-
paign, Isaac Hill wrote: " As to the talents of Webster, if we may take his speeches
which have from time to time appeared before the public as a specimen, they afford
evidence, indeed of what ? Not that he is a statesman, not that he ever could originate
a single idea that would be of any service either to his own party or to his country,
but that, like the moon-struck maniac, he can tire the ear with much speaking."

166 DANIEL WEBSTER

men and money. The culminating misfortune came in August,
when British regulars, landing in Maryland, routed our militia
at Bladensburg (August 24, 1814), and, marching into Wash-
ington with practically no resistance, burned the Capitol and
some other public buildings, including the "President's Palace."
Portsmouth, threatened in May, was in real danger in Sep-
tember, 1 and its citizens, directed by Webster, prepared to
resist a possible British landing at Rye Beach or Hampton,
south of the city. Because of the crisis, Webster was late
in returning to Congress, and the Patriot accused him of de-
laying in order to obtain legal fees in Portsmouth.

President Madison, having called Congress into an emer-
gency session, confessed that the treasury was on the verge
of bankruptcy, and Senator Mason wrote: "The Govern-
ment is in utter confusion and distress. Without a cabinet,
without credit or money, the nation is in a most deplorable
condition." 2 When Webster arrived, on October 14, he found
Congress occupying temporary quarters in a ramshackle build-
ing on 7th Street, formerly allotted to the Patent Office and
the General Post Office, and, before that, in succession a theater,
a tavern, and a boarding house. The room assigned to the
Lower House was so small that not all the members could
have desks, and every spot, even on the window ledges and in

1 At a Town Meeting, called on September 3, to arrange for the defense of Ports-
mouth, Jeremiah Mason was Moderator, and Webster offered some patriotic resolutions,
which were adopted. A nonpartisan Committee of Twelve was appointed, with
Webster as Chairman. On September 10, the Oracle printed a letter from Belfast,
Maine, predicting that the enemy would soon attack Portland and Portsmouth, and
Governor Oilman, as Commander-in-Chief, issued instructions for the militia to be in
readiness. But the expected landing never was attempted. Webster was always
proud of his share in these proceedings and, in 1835, wrote Caleb Cushing asking him
to include the following paragraph in an article which the latter was preparing on
Webster: " In the recess of Congress, in the summer of 1814, when the whole seaboard
was threatened by invasion, Mr. W. gave the principal part of his time in cooperating
with others for preparing for defense, in case of an attack by the enemy in the neighbor-
hood. By the citizens of Portsmouth, & on the nomination of that venerable republi-
can, John Langdon, he was placed at the head of the principal committee raised to
concert means of defense, & he offered his personal services to the Governor of the State
to be commanded in any mode in which they might be thought useful," (Fuess,
Cakb Cushing, I, 172-73.)

*Hillard, Jeremiah Mason, p. 93.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 167

the fireplaces, was filled. Certain spiteful Federalists, acting
on their usual determination

To rule the nation if they could,
But see it damned if others should,

improved the opportunity presented to them of causing trouble
for the administration and proposed removing the capital
to another city. Webster arrived just in time to cast his
vote in favor of removal. Fortunately the bill was negatived
in the House, and the seat of government remained on the
Potomac.

Webster, joining the assault on the administration, rose
to speak on October 24, during the debate on a plan to raise
money for carrying on the war by doubling the land tax.
With his wrath aroused by the threatened British attack on
Portsmouth and by the evidences of enemy destructiveness
all around him in Washington, Webster might have cried
loudly for revenge. Not at all! He seemed to be more
incensed against Madison than against the Prince Regent.
He attributed the "fearful wreck and ruin" of the public
credit to "an incompetent management of the powers of
government." In a spirit partisan rather than patriotic, he
denounced the Republicans for their failures. He ended by
expressing his intention of voting against the tax bill, justify-
ing himself by the fact that it was certain to pass and that,
by opposing it, he could voice his disapproval without holding
up the prosecution of the war. 1

Conditions did not improve as the year drew to a close.
Writing to Ezekiel on November 29, Webster said :

We are on the Eve of great events I expect a blow up soon. My
opinion is, that within sixty days Govt. will cease to pay even Secre-
taries, Clerks & Members of Congress. This I expect & when it comes

1 Webster had some difficulty in deciding what course to adopt. He wrote Ezekiel,
October 20, 1814: " My present inclination is, not to deny all sorts of supplies, in the
present crisis, but to hold myself quite at liberty to vote for or agst. any particular
tax. ... As to increase of the land tax, I have not decided." (National Edition,
XVI, 30.)

168 DANIEL WEBSTER

we are wound up. ... In shorty if Peace does not come this winter,
the Govt. will die in its own weakness. 1

He had one more opportunity on December 9, when a meas-
ure for a compulsory draft of all the free male population
between the ages of eighteen and forty-five was up for debate.
A plan of much the same kind was introduced in Congress in
1917 and quickly passed, as a necessary step in our participa-
tion in the World War. But Daniel Webster, in 1814, was its
uncompromising critic.

In what turned out to be his last speech on the war, Webster
declared that the principles of the bill were "not warranted
by any provision of the Constitution." The question at issue
was "nothing less than whether the most essential rights of
personal liberty shall be surrendered, and despotism embraced
in its worst form/* He reviewed the disasters of the pre-
ceding months, during which people had seen "the public
credit destroyed, and the national faith violated and dis-
graced." Referring specifically to the Conscription Bill, he
painted a vivid but much exaggerated picture of the plan in
operation, "when the class shall assemble to stand its draft,
and to throw the dice for blood." Conscription to him
was "an abominable doctrine," an "infamous expedient,"
and a "horrible lottery." "The nation," he continued, "is not
in a temper to submit to conscription." And then, carrying
his anti-administration theories to the farthest extreme which
he ever reached, he added, with regard to the military draft :

In my opinion it ought not to be carried into effect. The opera-
tion of measures thus unconstitutional and illegal ought to be pre-
vented by a resort to other measures which are both constitutional and
legal., It will be the solemn duty of the State Governments to pro-
tect their own authority over their own militia, and to interpose
between their citizens and arbitrary power. These are among the
objects for which the State Governments exist; and their highest
obligations bind them to the preservation of their own rights and the
liberties of their people. 2

It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that Webster was
1 National Edition, XVI, 3I . * Ibid., XIV, 68.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 169

here threatening, and even justifying, state nullification of a
Federal law an astounding doctrine to be advanced by a
disciple of Washington and Hamilton. To such an extreme
position had he been forced through his opposition to the war
and his abhorrence of Jeffersonian principles ! His influence
was exerted successfully. Although an act to much the same
effect had passed the Senate by a majority of seven, the bill was
indefinitely postponed in the House, and the announcement
of peace a few weeks later made any further discussion futile.
For some reason this speech was not published at the time
in the Portsmouth newspapers, 1 and it was not included In the
earlier editions of Webster's works. Indeed, George Ticknor
Curtis said that it had not been preserved. 2 Webster, how-
ever, had written it out after delivering it, and his manuscript
found its way into the archives of the New Hampshire His-
torical Society, where it was discovered by Van Tyne, who
included it as an "unpublished speech " in his edition of the
Letters of Daniel Webster,, in 1902. As the utterance in which
Webster showed himself most concerned regarding the rights
of states, this speech deserves careful study. It was for-
tunate for him that, when he was later condemning the nulli-
fiers of South Carolina, there was no one to revive against him
the words which he had used in 1814. Even Calhoun, who
must have been on the floor when Webster's remarks were being
made, never saw fit to resurrect them. In fairness to Webster,
however, it must be added that, although he did defend nulli-
fication, he devoted his closing paragraph to the repudiation
of disunionism :

Allusions have been made, sir, to the state of things in New Eng-
land, and, as usual, she has been charged with an intention to dis-
solve the Union. The charge is unfounded. She is much too wise
to entertain such purposes. She has had too much experience, and
has too strong a recollection of the blessings which the Union is ca-

1 Senator Jeremiah Mason's speech on the same question, delivered in the Upper
House in November, was printed in the Portsmouth Oracle for December 3, 1814.

2 Curtis, 1, 138. Referring to this speech in 1831, Webster said, " I had a hand, with
Mr. Eppes and others, in overthrowing Mr. Monroe's conscription in 1814."

170 DANIEL WEBSTER

pable of producing under a just administration of government. It is
her greatest fear> that the course at present pursued will destroy it,
by destroying every principle, every interest, every sentiment, and
every feeling which have hitherto contributed to uphold it. Those
who cry out that the Union is in danger are themselves the authors of
that danger. They put its existence to hazard by measures of vio-
lence, which it is not capable of enduring. They talk of dangerous
designs against government, when they are overthrowing the fabric
from Its foundations. They alone, sir, are friends to the union of
the States, who endeavor to maintain the principles of civil liberty in
the country, and to preserve the spirit in which the Union was framed. 1

Webster's absence from New England during this Special
Session covered the period of the "New England Conven-
tion/' which sat from December 15, 1814, to January 5, 1815,
in Hartford, Connecticut. Such a gathering had been sug-
gested at least as early as December 15, 1808, by Harrison
Gray Otis to Josiah Quincy, but action was delayed, and it
was not called until Massachusetts issued a formal invitation
to the other New England states. Twenty-three delegates
were present, including representatives from Rhode Island,
Connecticut, and Massachusetts, as well as one from Vermont
and two from New Hampshire. When the notification from
Massachusetts was received in New Hampshire, the Legisla-
ture was not in session. Governor Gilman, a thoroughgoing
Federalist, was quite ready to name delegates, but was appar-
ently blocked in his design by the opposition of his Counselors,
three out of five of whom were Republicans. 2 The people of

1 National Edition, XIV, 69.

2 In June 1814, the Legislature elected Elijah Hall, of Portsmouth, as a member of
the Governor's Council. Hall was a Republican, and Webster, in a letter to Moses P.
Payson (National Edition, XVI, 28), expressed indignation that a legislature supposedly
Federal should have chosen him. Later an alleged illegality was discovered in Hall's
election as Representative at the Portsmouth Town Meeting, and Webster appeared
before the Legislature to demand a rejection of the votes. He carried his point, but,
when the election was again held, the Legislature chose Hall once more, by a major-
ity of two votes. This gave the Republicans a majority in the Council, and, according
to Cyrus P. Bradley, prevented Governor Gilman from arbitrarily naming delegates
from New Hampshire to the Hartford Convention. (Biography of Isaac Hill, pp. 38-39,
published in Concord, in 1835.) The New Hampshire Patriot for November 29, 1814,
asserted that, at a secret Federalist meeting at Exeter, Webster had opposed the pro-
posed Hartford Convention and had blocked a plan to send delegates to it.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 171

Cheshire and Grafton Counties, along the Connecticut River,
did, however, hold assemblies and elect two men to represent
them.

About the Hartford Convention and its deliberations there
has always been an atmosphere of mystery. The call for the
Convention, sent out by the Massachusetts General Court,
spoke of a conference of the New England states upon " the
subjects of their public grievances and concerns/' and there
were undoubtedly some among the delegates who, like Harrison
Gray Otis, favored a new national convention for the radical
revision of the Federal Constitution. That even bolder meas-
ures, including the formation of a Northern Confederacy,
were suggested, cannot be denied. Among those who took
an active part in the discussions held in the council chamber of
the old Hartford State House were bold spirits who advocated
secession as a drastic but effectual remedy for their ills. 1 But
the majority seem to have been moderate Federalists, not
unlike Webster in their point of view, and the report of the
proceedings did not seem incendiary. 2 Briefly, it confessed
that the hour for open resistance had not arrived, and made
four innocuous recommendations : that state armies be raised ;
that seven specified amendments to the Constitution be passed ;
and that, if Congress failed to act, a second Convention be
called in June, in Boston. If the war had continued much
longer, it is conceivable that the restless agitators behind the
Hartford Convention might have caused trouble. But the
news of Jackson's victory at New Orleans, followed closely
by the tidings of the Treaty of Ghent, welcomed by New
England more warmly than by any other section of the country,
removed all the motives for separation and left Harrison
Gray Otis and his followers without an argument, 3

1 John Quincy Adams, with his usual lack of moderation, called the Convention
" unconstitutional and treasonable . . . wholly abnormal, hideous, and wicked."

2 A full account of the Convention was published in the Portsmouth Oracle for
January 14, 1815, only nine days after it had dissolved.

3 Senator Mason wrote of the Hartford Convention, November 04, 1814: "I do
not expect much from it at present, whatever may be the wishes or intentions of those
gentlemen, & expect it will end in a strong declaration of principles & a recommendation
of moderate measures." (Hillard, p. 103.)

i 7 2 DANIEL WEBSTER

Some years later, when Webster had become the outstand-
ing advocate of the inviolability of the Federal Union, efforts
were made by his political foes to implicate him with the Hart-
ford Convention. The plot was a complete failure. There
were witnesses to prove that he had advised Governor Oilman
not to appoint delegates from New Hampshire, and that he
was fearful lest it might be led into treasonable utterances.
George Ticknor, in his Recollections > speaks of a visit which
he made to Washington in January and February, 1815, just
after he had left Hartford, and makes the following statement :
"Mr, Gore, and more especially Mr. Mason and Mr. Webster,
expressed their dissatisfaction with the meeting of the conven-
tion ; and more particularly that they received no information
by correspondence from its members." * On August 24, 1835,
in reply to a letter of inquiry from James H. Bingham, Webster
put himself on record as follows :

If it would gratify yourself and friends, I would give you sundry
facts and dates, which show, what is strictly true, that I had no hand
or part whatever in the Hartford Convention, and it is true that I
expressed an opinion to Governor Gilman, that it would not be wise
in him to appoint delegates. Further than this I have no recollection
of interfering in the matter. At the same time, it is true that I did
not regard the proposed convention as seditious or treasonable. I
did not suppose that Mr. Cabot, Mr. West, Judge Prescott, and their
associates, were a knot of traitors. 2

At a date even later, Webster prepared for Hiram Ketchum
a formal statement of the facts, emphasizing the point that he
had nothing whatever to do with the meeting at Hartford, and
concluding :

It is certain that, after ten years of painstaking of all kinds (begin-
ning in Mr. Adams's administration), not a scrap or syllable has been
found, fixing upon me any approbation of, or concurrence in the
objects or the results of that convention. The truth is, I kept aloof
from all concern with it, and, as I had duties to perform here, con-
fined myself to their performance. 3

1 Curtis, 1, 136. 2 National Edition, XVIII, 11.

3 Ibid., pp. 184-85. This letter is sufficiently explicit to meet every charge raised
by Webster's opponents.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 173

As winter set in, Webster and the Federalists redoubled their
attacks on the administration. On December 22, 1814, he
wrote Moody Kent: "The Govt. cannot execute a Conscrip-
tion Law, if it should try, It cannot enlist soldiers It
cannot borrow money what can it do?" 1 Meanwhile the
rumors of peace which had been in the air developed into some-
thing more than gossip. The British and American Com-
missioners, who had convened at Ghent in the preceding
August, were, in spite of vacillations and delays, bringing their
negotiations through to a satisfactory conclusion, and a
treaty was signed on December 24, 1814. It conceded virtu-
ally nothing to the United States, but conditions were such
in this country that the American envoys were glad to give
their assent to the agreement The news of Jackson's defeat
of Pakenham on January 8, 1815, was a solace to the despond-
ent Republicans, and was followed in the middle of February
by the announcement of peace. 2 Webster had returned to
Portsmouth, reaching there on February 22, and heard the
church bells ringing joyfully to proclaim the end of the war.
Although he probably did not realize it at the moment, the
Federalists were left without an issue.

When Daniel Webster had reached such prominence that his
political record was being searched for inconsistencies, his
utterances before and during the War of 1812 were revived,
like ghosts, to testify against him. In the autumn of 1828,
the Jackson Republican, a semi-weekly journal established in
Boston by some former Federalists who had espoused the cause
of Andrew Jackson, published an article asserting that John
Quincy Adams, conversing with Thomas Jefferson, had de-
clared that Webster and other well-known Federalists had,
in 1807 and 1808, been "engaged in a plot to dissolve the
Union and reannex New England to Great Britain/' Webster,
who was in 1828 a Senator of the United States, was naturally

1 National Edition, XVI, 32.

2 The Portsmouth Oracle for February 25, 1815, which printed the full text of the
Treaty, said, " The Treaty of Peace reached Portsmouth in 76 hours from the City of
Washington, a distance of 550 miles." Ratifications of the Treaty were exchanged on
February 18, 1815.

I 74 DANIEL WEBSTER

aroused by this accusation, and brought a suit for criminal
libel in the Supreme Judicial Court against Theodore Lyman,
Jr., one of the proprietors of the newspaper. The trial was
held on December i6 9 1828, before a jury, with the distin-
guished Chief Justice Isaac Parker presiding. 1 As Lyman
belonged by birth to that inner circle of Boston society, to
which Webster had been admitted through his talents, the
case became a kind of cause cil^bre^ the outcome of which was
awaited eagerly.

The evidence showed that Adams, in mentioning the
"leaders of the Federal party in New England," had never
named Webster specifically, and that the perpetrator of the
alleged libel had included Webster only because of his later
important position in the Federalist councils. Samuel Hub-
bard, in defending Lyman, made the point that it could not be
libelous to assert that a man had plotted to dissolve the Union,
for "every State has a right to secede from the Union without
committing treason" a declaration particularly interesting
because of the fact that Webster's Reply to Hayne was made
only a little more than a year later.

It was, of course, preposterous to suppose that Webster,
who, in 1808, was a struggling attorney in Portsmouth with
only a limited political influence, had then anything to do with
the plans of the Essex Junto. The jury were unable to reach
a verdict, although it was reported on good authority that
they stood ten to two for conviction. That Webster failed to
obtain the vindication he desired was due to a doubt on the
part of the jury as to whether the charge were ever really made.
Mr. Benton, who studied the details carefully, reached the
conclusion that Lyman never intended to accuse Webster of
complicity in a treasonable plot to break up the Union and
that, therefore, no ground for libel ever existed. Lyman
and Webster were later reconciled, but echoes of the trial were
heard long after at dinners on Beacon Hill.

1 The story of this famous suit has been vigorously and entertainingly told by Josiah
H. Benton, b A Notabk Libel Case, a booklet published in 1904, by Charles E. Good-
speed, of Boston, Most of Webster's biographers have neglected to mention the
episode, and it has seldom been accorded the attention which it deserves.

A CONGRESSMAN IN OPPOSITION 175

Webster, during the period covered by this chapter, was
guided in his political conduct mainly by two factors his own
instinctive antagonism to Republican principles and his re-
gard for the financial interests of his own section of the coun-
try. Jefferson's commercial restrictions and the war with
England were prejudicial to the merchants and shipowners of
Portsmouth, whom Webster represented. 1 In opposing the
Embargo and the war, Webster was thinking in terms, not of
the nation from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, but of New
England. Professor Van Tyne was not far wrong in styling
him a "local politician," for there was indisputably a pro-
vincial feeling in all that he had to say on the fateful issues of
that period. It was not until later that he was to boast, as
he did on March 7, 1850, "I wish to speak to-day, not as a
Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an
American/*

1 It is noteworthy that, throughout this period, the town of Portsmouth regularly
gave a small majority for the Republican candidates, both for Governor and for Con-
gress. Undoubtedly the wealthier citizens of that seaport were strongly Federalist,
but the middle and lower classes so-called were usually Jeffersonian in their
principles and votes.

VII

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX

Sweet with persuasion, eloquent
In passion, cool in argument,
Or, ponderous, falling on thy foes
As fell the Norse gocTs hammer blows.

WHITHER, u The Lost Occasion "

My efforts in regard to the banks, at different times suggested, and in
regard to the currency of the country > I think were of some small degree of

utility to the public.

WEBSTER, Autobiography

DANIEL WEBSTER was a thoroughly healthy human being, with
keen senses, sound digestive organs, and a mind free from those
complexes and repressions which so fascinate the pathologist.
Once it was reported that Webster had said that he wished that
he had never been born ; but Rufus Choate, when he heard of
it, declared that this must have been a momentary fit of gloom,
occasioned by disaster, for "Webster was rather a constitu-
tionally happy man/* His personality was neither subtle nor
inexplicable. His attention was fixed, not in his own reactions,
but on externalities; on lawsuits and politics, not on the
elusive mysteries of life or the hidden wonders of the universe.
Busy with practical matters, he refused to yield to moods.
He escaped both despondency and exaltations, and was in this
respect quite different from the neurotic and introspective
Abraham Lincoln.

Webster seldom unlocked his heart. His letters tell us what
he is doing., not what he is thinking. His so-called "private
correspondence" is as public as a newspaper. It was not that
he was secretive. He simply attached no importance to those
caprices and mad desires which make the confessions of Cellini
and Rousseau so charming. Nor was it that he was dull. He

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 177

was almost as uncommunicative about himself as Grant or
Cleveland, but there are countless stories of him > told by
others, which divulge the essential man, undraped and off
guard a very human person, with frailties which make us
love him. What we miss are those intimate and indiscreet dis-
closures in which writers like John Quincy Adams and Roosevelt
so completely reveal themselves. If we are searching for the
real Webster, we find him in Harvey's Reminiscences and in the
hundreds of anecdotes, verifiable or legendary, which indicate
how superbly vital he was.

Of his daily life in Washington during his early terms in
Congress we know very little aside from some meagre items
culled from his letters. His salary of six dollars a day and
mileage did not permit of luxurious quarters, but he had lodg-
ings at Crawford's Hotel, in Georgetown, with Senator Mason, 1
as well as with such wealthy men as Christopher Gore and
Rufus King, both of whom brought their wives with them and
maintained considerable style. Webster for some time had a
room next to Mason's, and the two ate at a congenial table in
the hotel, often, however, dining with Gore and King. 2 "In
the mess," said Ticknor of Webster, "he was very amusing,
talking gayly, and as if no care rested upon him. Everywhere
he was liked as a social companion."

Into the formal society of the capital Webster seems not to
have entered, except in a casual way. After a little experience,
he wrote to Bingham :

A few ladies, indeed, are to be seen by going to the weekly rout
at the palace ; but they are there only as so many curiosities rara
aves fit for all the purposes of social life, save only the unimportant

1 Mason wrote, November a, 1814, that he had " an excellent chamber, consisting
of two apartments," at Crawford's Hotel. On December 27, he added, ** The mess
(as it is here called) with which I dine, consists of eight or ten gentlemen, mostly well-
informed, pleasant, and agreeable."

2 In speaking of Webster, Ticknor wrote: "His society was much sought. His
relations with Mr. Gore, dating from the period of his studying the law, and his inti-
mate friendship with Mr. Mason, never at any moment interrupted or disturbed, made
him a most welcome member of that brilliant circle, which generally met in the evening
in the private parlor belonging to Mrs. King and Mrs. Gore, which was rather an elegant
drawing-room, for the time." (Curtis, I, 135.)

I7 8 DANIEL WEBSTER

particulars of speaking and being spoken to, . . I have been to the
levee or drawing room but once. It is a mere matter of form. . . .
You stay from five minutes to an hour, as you please ; eat and drink
what you can catch* without danger of surfeit, and if you can luckily
find your hat and stick, then take your French leave ; and that's going
to the a levee. ni

He once dined with < CoL Pickering, Mr. Stockton, and a
few others** at Mount Vernon, as the guest of Judge Bushrod
Washington, and had "a very pleasant time/' But he tells
us nothing of the food, the clothes, or the conversation.

His colleagues, however, were talking about him and learning
to respect him. New member though he was, he was appointed
in July 1 8 13 on a Federalist " steering committee," with Timothy
Pickering as Chairman, to control party matters in the House. 2
Ticknor, writing of a period in the early months of 1815,
declared that Webster, although he had then been in Congress
less than two years, "was already among its foremost men,
and stood with Gaston and Hanson to lead the opposition in
debate, on the floor of the Lower House/" 3 He had taken pains
to familiarize himself in a practical way with the technique of
legislation, and his spare time was devoted to reading in history
and economics. 4 He was well aware that, in Congress, the man
whose mind is stored with information is certain to acquire
influence.

1 National Edition, XVII, 234.
3 Ibid., p. 237.

3 Regarding Webster's power as a speaker, Ticknor wrote : " I heard Mr. Webster
several times in the House, not In formal speeches, but in that very deliberate con-
versational manner, and with the peculiar exactness of phraseology, which marked him
as a public debater to the end of his life. He did not fail then, any more than afterward,
to command the attention of the House. The subjects on which he spoke related to the
common course of business, and were not exciting or particularly interesting."

4 The best witness as to Webster's reading at this time is again George Ticknor,
who said : " He was at this time much occupied with the study of British politics.
Volumes of the 'Annual Register* and the 4 Parliamentary Debates* covered his table ;
and while I was in Washington he read through Brougham's * Colonial Policy of the
European Powers,' parts of which he praised to me, while with other portions he was
much dissatisfied. When conversing with the other members with whom I constantly
saw htm, he seemed to me to know more about the details of business before the House
than any of them. I mean that he appeared to know more what was to come up next,
or soon, facts which I was anxious to know." (Curtis, 1, 136.)

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 179

In his physical appearance, Webster, although only a little
over thirty, had become a commanding figure, who moved
among others as if conscious of his superiority. Visitors per-
ceived that he was no ordinary man. Some thought that he
was too theatrical, and indeed he did have the dramatic instinct
which makes the orator and the actor akin. But it was his
sincerity, backed by that broad forehead and those lustrous
eyes, which endowed him with power. Massive and leonine,
he dominated others even before his lips were open ; and, when
the rich tones rolled forth, his hearers were enchanted, like the
mariners listening to the Sirens. His easy flow of language
and his calm self-possession, even in the fury of debate, were
noticeable. He never stammered or groped for an idea, and he
had a clearness of expression which was refreshing when issues
were confused and timid men were hesitating which way to
turn.

To the first session of the Fourteenth Congress, which opened
in December 1815, Webster returned late. He reached
Washington with Mrs. Webster in early January 1816, but they
were almost at once called north by the serious illness of their
daughter, who had been left with friends in Cambridge. When
he was finally able to resume his seat, on February 7, 1816, he
was aware that the divergencies between parties were no longer
as obvious as they had been. The Treaty of Ghent had
deprived the Federalists of their cherished grievance, and the
party was slowly dying of inanition. The Hartford Convention,
so menacing to the Administration a year before, now seemed a
fiasco, and Harrison Gray Otis's mission to Washington had
made him the laughingstock of the Republicans. There were,
of course, nominal divisions in the House, with Clay and
Calhoun still heading one group and Webster exercising a large
influence over the other. But the " Era of Good Feeling" was
at hand. Questions of the currency and the tariff, with which
this session was mostly concerned, were not discussed primarily
as problems of party policy, but rather on their merits as
economic measures.

Congress reassembled in a plain brick structure, which had

i8o DANIEL WEBSTER

been erected during the preceding summer by John Law and
leased to the government as temporary headquarters. 1 Look-
ing around him in the crowded hall assigned to the House,
Webster could see, besides Clay in the Speaker's Chair and
Calhoun on the floor, William Pinkney, then the undisputed
leader of the American bar, the eccentric John Randolph,
once more in his place after two years out of office, and, among
the new faces, these of Joseph Hopkinson, of Pennsylvania,
and Samuel R. Betts, of New York. Webster declared in 1831
that he had seen no such Congress for talents as the
Fourteenth, 2 In such a galaxy, the most conspicuous figures
were undoubtedly Calhoun and Webster, although we are told
that Randolph talked more than either.

The important topic in Congress was that of the reestablish-
ment of a National Bank, on which Webster's utterance was
eagerly awaited, for he had already discussed the matter in the
preceding session. When the original Bank of the United
States, organized in 1791 through the foresight of Alexander
Hamilton, expired at the end of twenty years, an effort to
recharter it was defeated, chiefly because Republicans were
suspicious of its Federalist origin. Meanwhile a mania for
state banks had resulted in an era of paper money, over which
the Federal Government had no jurisdiction ; and the doubtful
state of the currency was a constant menace to legitimate
business. In the autumn of 1814, with the treasury facing an
enormous deficit, the party of Thomas Jefferson became through
necessity the advocate of the very institution which it had con-
demned less than a quarter of a century before. Webster him-
self, as a loyal follower of Hamilton, favored a National Bank;
but, being a "hard money " man, he stipulated that it should
be compelled to redeem its notes in specie, that it should not be
overcapitalized, and that it should be free to determine for
itself whether or not it should make loans to the government.
The principles on which Webster insisted are entirely sound,

1 Hazelton, The National Capitol, p. 39. This " Brick Capitol," as it was called,
stood on the corner of A and First Streets, N. E.

2 From a manuscript letter quoted by Curtis, I, 146.

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 181

and, in the opinion of the best authorities, are at the basis of
any wise system of banking. It would have amazed Ebenezer
Webster, who was always in debt, to hear his son, also not
unaccustomed to borrowing, discoursing on theories of banking.
But Daniel Webster could arrange the financial affairs of a
nation far better than he could his own monetary perplexities.
The bill as proposed by the administration in December
1814 had established a "paper money" bank, with a capital of
fifty million dollars, of which only four million dollars was to be
specie. Furthermore the government was to have not only the
power to borrow up to thirty millions of dollars, but also the
right to frame regulations regarding specie payments. In
plain terms, the bank was to be merely the creature of the
government, with almost no authority of its own, and existing
mainly that its funds might be available for government
demands. The effect of this plan would have been to put
into circulation an irredeemable paper currency, founded upon
forty-six millions in government stocks, then much depreciated
because of the war. In commenting on this phase of the proj-
ect, Webster said, in a memorandum written in 1831 :

Throughout all the debates on the bank question, I kept steadily in
view the object of restoring the currency, as a matter of the very first
importance, without which it would be impossible to establish any
efficient system of revenue and finance. The very first step toward
such a system is to provide a safe medium of payment. I opposed,
therefore, to the full extent of my power, every project for a bank so
constituted that it might issue irredeemable paper, and thus drown
and overwhelm us still more completely in the miseries and calamities
of paper money. I would agree to nothing but a specie-paying
bank. 1

The Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander J. Dallas, who
sponsored the measure, resorted to every possible device in
order to drive it through Congress. It had originally been
rejected by the House in late November; but Dallas, un-
daunted, had it introduced in the Senate and was able to

1 Curtis, I, 140.

1 82 DANIEL WEBSTER

secure its passage there* On the day before Christmas it was
reported, with some unimportant amendments, by the Com-
mittee of the Whole in the House, Alarmed, the Federalists
sent for Webster, who was spending the holiday in Baltimore,
and he rode the forty miles to Washington on horseback, in
season to appear in his seat on the morning of Tuesday, De-
cember 27. Owing to the death of a Senator, the bill was laid
upon the table until Monday, January 2, 1815, when Webster
made a powerful speech in criticism of it. His remarks, which
displayed a thorough acquaintance with the basic principles as
well as the history of banking, stressed the desirability of a
specie-paying bank, free to transact business without outside
interference. The essence of his argument is compressed in a
single paragraph :

Excessive issues of paper, and a close connection with government,
are the circumstances which of all others are the most certain to de-
stroy the credit of bank paper. If there were no excessive issues, or,
in other words, if the bank paid its notes in specie on demand, its
connection with government and its interest in the funds would not,
perhaps, materially affect the circulation of its paper, although they
would naturally diminish the value of its stock. But when these two
circumstances exist in the condition of any bank, that it does not pay
its notes, and that its funds are in public stocks, and all its operations
intimately blended with the operations of government, nothing fur-
ther need be known, to be quite sure that its paper will not answer the
purpose of a creditable circulating medium. 1

Unanswerable objections such as these had their effect even
on prejudiced minds. 2 After the House had refused to recom-
mit the measure, it was brought to a direct vote, the roll call
showing 8 1 "yeas" and 80 "nays." Speaker Langdon Cheves,
of South Carolina, then rose, and, after giving reasons for his

1 National Edition, V, 44-45. This speech was the earliest of Webster's Congres-
sional speeches to be included in the official edition of his works. The New York
Evening Post said of this speech that it presented its readers " with more sound sense,
more practical knowledge of the subject in a style plain and unadorned, yet precise and
chaste, than we have yet seen from any other man/*

2 For a good summary of Webster's criticisms of the bank bill, see Robert L. Carey's
Daniel Webster As an Economist (1929), pp. 101-04.

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 183

action > cast his vote in the negative. 1 The bill was thus lost
by a tie. Calhoun, who felt keenly the humiliation of the
administration, then strode dramatically across the floor to
Webster's desk and, holding out his hands in appeal, begged for
his assistance in framing an act which would have the latter *s
support. When Webster pledged himself to help, the South
Carolinian burst into tears. 2

Webster kept his promise. A revised plan, meeting most of
his objections, was drafted, and, after undergoing some modi-
fications in the Senate, was passed by both Houses. But
President Madison now became a factor in the controversy and,
on January 30, returned it without his signature, advancing
various reasons for his veto. Writing to Ezekiel, Webster said,
"The President has negatived the bank bill. So all our labor
is lost. I hope this will satisfy our friends, that it was not a
bank likely to favor the administration. What is to be done
next nobody can tell." 3 Although another project, intended
to meet the criticisms of the Chief Executive, was now intro-
duced, the news of the Treaty of Ghent interrupted the debate,
and, when the end of the session came on March 3, 1815, noth-
ing had been accomplished.

By resisting these attempts to organize a bank which would
have only an insubstantial basis of credit, Webster performed a
genuine service to the nation. Against untried panaceas and
delusive remedies for the ills of the body politic, he stood firm,
convinced that it was better to be safe than to run the risk of
insecurity. What Hamilton started, Webster continued, and
no theorist could dislodge him from his position.

Such was the history of the preliminary stages of the measure

1 Langdon Cheves (1776-1857), one of the most brilliant of South Carolina lawyers,
entered Congress in 1811 and was a strong supporter of the war with England. He
succeeded Henry Clay as Speaker of the House, receiving the support of the Federalists
against Felix Grundy, who was the candidate of the administration. In 1819, Cheves,
who had been a judge of the Superior Court of South Carolina since 1816, was made
President of the Bank of the United States and was largely responsible for establishing
its credit. When he resigned in 1822, he had transformed it into a strong and reputable
institution.

3 Quoted in Curtis, I, 143, from Ticknor, who heard the story from Webster himself.

8 National Edition, XVII, 251.

184 DANIEL WEBSTER

which Webster found under discussion when he resumed his
seat in February 1 8 1 6* At the first convenient opportunity, on
February 28, he reiterated his convictions in a speech which was
undoubtedly the most important contribution to the debate. 1
Because of his incontrovertible arguments, the proposed large
capitalization ($35,000,000) was considerably reduced and the
power of the President to authorize the suspension of specie
payments was stricken out. Webster was also opposed to the
subscription of stock on the part of the government and to the
appointment of government directors, but was unable to bring
about any alteration in these features of the plan. When this
bill, as modified by the Senate, came once more before the
House, Webster, in reply to Grosvenor, of New York, spoke in
an amiable and tolerant way, pointing out again the fact that
it placed in the hands of the government altogether too much
control over the proposed National Bank. With perfect con-
sistency, he cast his vote against the measure, but it was passed
by Congress, April 10, 1816, and signed by the President.
Although he had been defeated, Webster could comfort himself
with the knowledge that the Bank was sure to be a better one
because of his inflexible opposition to some of the dangerous
features which had been proposed. 2

In connection with another important measure of this session,
Webster showed his skillful leadership. Calhoun, as Chairman
of the Committee on the National Currency, presented a plan,
suggested by the Treasury Department, requiring all govern-
ment revenues to be paid in nothing but gold, silver, copper,
such foreign coins as were legal tender, and treasury notes, thus
excluding the notes of banks which were not specie-paying.
The opposition from the friends of state banks was very deter-
mined, and the bill was eventually lost by a margin of one vote.

1 A condensed and inadequate Version of this speech is printed in National Edition,
XIV, 70 ff.

2 Calhoun always contended that, as Chairman of the Committee on the National
Currency, he was the one responsible for the Second Bank of the United States. " I
might say with truth," he said in the Senate, January ij, 1834, " that the bank owes as
much to me as to any other individual in the country ; and I might even add that, had
it not been for my efforts, it would not have been chartered." (Meigs, Calhoun^ I, 194.)

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPIJEX 185

Then Webster gave an amazing display of his power. On the
following morning, he introduced a joint resolution covering
precisely the same principle, supporting it in a speech so clear
and so persuasive that it actually converted some of his
opponents to his side. He pointed out that the situation of the
country "in regard to its finances and the collection of its
revenues" was "most deplorable"; he asserted that, because
of the lack of a uniform system of collection, the whole revenue
was thrown into "derangement and endless confusion"; he
exposed what he called " the plausible and insidious mischiefs
of a paper-money system"; and he reiterated his conviction
that these evils required the immediate attention of Congress.
He made no attempt to be rhetorical. He endeavored, by his
earnestness, to carry conviction. Seldom has a complicated
matter been more lucidly explained.

Webster's sheer audacity enabled him to succeed where
Calhoun had failed. The resolution went through all the
stages of legislation on the same morning, was ultimately passed
by a large majority, and was signed by the President four days
later. It provided that, after February 20, 1817, all monies due
the government must be paid in coin, treasury notes, notes of
the Bank of the United States, or of other banks redeeming
their bills in legal currency. Thus the policy of specie pay-
ments was formally adopted. The Second Bank of the United
States, under William Jones, once Secretary of the Navy and
Acting Secretary of the Treasury, as president, was opened for
business in 1817, and, after some vicissitudes, the country was
on a sound money basis. The achievement of this happy result
was due largely to Webster's personal intervention. In com-
menting on what had been accomplished, he wrote proudly in
1831:

The resolutions had all the desired effect. They brought about
an entire change in the currency of the country. Duties and taxes,
debts for lands, etc., were then equally borne and equally paid.' After
some years of unfortunate management, the national bank took a
good direction ; and from that time to this the United States have
had a currency perfectly sound and safe, and more convenient, and

1 86 DANIEL WEBSTER

producing local exchanges at less expense, than any other nation Is

or ever was blessed with.

No small part of Webster's constructive work as a legislator
was carried on in the unromantic but exceedingly useful guise of
an economist. The average citizen does not become ecstatic
over columns of figures and prefers tales of battles and sieges to
pages of statistics. Yet the statesmen who provide revenue for
the machinery of government of ten perform more lasting serv-
ices than those who revel in picturesque adventures. Too little
attention has been paid to Webster's share in stabilizing our
finances and keeping the ship of State off the rocks of insolvency.

The tariff, too, is a prosaic subject, but one with which
Webster was much concerned during certain periods of his
career ; and the criticism to which he was subjected because of
his change of attitude makes it necessary to explain his position
in 1816. As a representative from a district in which shipping
was the chief industry, he was In theory an advocate of free
trade, looking upon import duties as justifiable only as a means
of paying government expenses. At the time of the proposed
repeal of the Embargo Act in 1814, Webster, replying to a
speech by Calhoun favoring the retention of certain duties as a
protective measure, said forcibly that he doubted the wisdom
of retaining double duties "as a more effectual safeguard and
encouragement to our growing manufactures." 1 His exact
words are important in view of the volte-face which he later
made:

In respect to manufactures, it is necessary to speak with some pre-
cision. I am not, generally speaking, their enemy. I am their
friend, but I am not for rearing them, or any other interest, in hot-
beds. I would not legislate precipitately, even in favor of them;
above all, I would not profess intentions in relation to them which
I did not purpose to execute. I feel no desire to push the capital into
extensive manufactures faster than the general progress of our wealth
and population propels it.

1 This speech was delivered on April 6, 1814, called forth by Calhoun's proposal,
on April 4^ to repeal the Embargo Act. It is printed in National Edition, XIV, 35 ff.

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 187

This is very good laissezfaire doctrine, actuated s in Webster's
case, by the fact that Portsmouth was a seaport town and that
New England was relying for its continued prosperity mainly
upon its carrying trade. His opinions on economic matters
were formed by the needs and demands of his section. Born
and brought up on a farm, he was not eager to stimulate manu-
facturing at the expense of agriculture ; and it was this feeling
which was responsible for one of his eloquent paragraphs still
quoted in legislative halls :

I am not anxious to accelerate the approach of the period when the
great mass of American labor shall not find its employment in the
field ; when the young men of the country shall be obliged to shut
their eyes upon external nature, upon the heavens and the earth, and
immerse themselves in close and unwholesome workshops ; when they
shall be obliged to shut their ears to the bleating of their own flocks
upon their own hills, and to the voice of the lark that cheers them at
the plough, that they may open them in dust, and smoke, and steam,
to the perpetual whirl of spools and spindles, and the grating of rasps
and saws. 1

Before many years had passed, great manufacturing centres
were to rise along the Merrimack : Hooksett was to become
Manchester, Watanic was to be transformed into Nashua, and
Lowell, Haverhill, and Lawrence were to develop into teeming
hives of industry. Even at Franklin, only a short distance from
Webster's hitherto isolated birthplace, textile mills were to
bring prosperity to thousands of employees. The wharves
along the coast, as if in reaction, were slowly to fall into aban-
donment and decay, and the farms along the ridges were to be
deserted. With this change were to arise novel and puzzling
problems : the difficulties of foreign immigration, the social
and hygienic questions presented by crowded tenements, the
inevitable adjustments between capital and labor. When this
complex era dawned, Webster's views had to be modified ; but
in 1814 he said with fervor :

It is the true policy of government to suffer the different pursuits
of society to take their own course, and not to give excessive boun-

1 National Edition, XIV, 4$.

1 88 DANIEL WEBSTER

ties or encouragements to one over another. This also is the true
spirit of the Constitution. It has not, in my opinion, conferred on
the government the power of changing the occupations of the
people of different states and sections, and of forcing them into other
employments. It cannot prohibit commerce any more than agricul-
ture, nor manufacture more than commerce. It owes protection to
all. 1

With the War of 1812 over, Congress was free to turn its
attention to matters of internal policy, among which the tariff
was foremost. An act, framed principally by the Secretary of
the Treasury, and intended to protect "infant industry," was
introduced in the spring of 1816, and, strangely enough in the
light of future events, received the support of Calhoun and
Lowndes, of South Carolina. 2 Webster, although he did not
enter into any discussion of the broad issues involved, devoted
his efforts, not unsuccessfully, to reducing the duties on textiles,
and especially on iron and hemp, which New Englanders
employed extensively in ship construction. He did not attempt
to fight a policy which obviously had a considerable majority in
its favor, contenting himself with guarding the interests of his
constituents. Then, as always, the attitude of different sec-
tions of the country towards the tariff was determined mainly
by selfish motives.

During this session, Webster voted in favor of a measure for
raising the pay of Congressmen from six dollars a day, and
mileage, to $1500 a year. At the passing of this bill, there was
an outcry throughout the country, and many of the members
who had sanctioned the increase failed to secure a renomination.
Webster himself had nothing to lose, for he had moved to
Massachusetts, and was no longer eligible to office from New
Hampshire.

Even in the heat engendered by controversy, Webster did not

1 National Edition, XIV, 45.

2 Calhoun was not the author of the Tariff of 1816, but he approved of it and declared
his belief that " a certain encouragement should be extended, at least, to our woolen
and cotton manufacturers." There was then a strong sentiment in South Carolina
favoring protection. (Meigs, I, 191.)

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 189

Indulge in personalities, 1 and was invariably courteous and
tactful towards those who disagreed with him. It was not in
his nature to allow differences on public matters to degenerate
into private grudges. He kept on polite terms with President
Madison, whose policies he was so vigorously opposing ; and he
and Calhoun, meeting at dinner, showed no disposition to
quarrel. But, in the spring of 1816, he incurred the wrath of
the fiery John Randolph, of Roanoke, by objecting to a tax on
sugar which the latter wished to incorporate in the tariff bill ;
and Randolph, following his customary practice, challenged
Webster to meet him on the "field of honor." Under similar
conditions, Alexander Hamilton had felt obliged to meet the
requirements of the " code/' But Webster, who disapproved of
dueling, had the temerity to decline a meeting, and replied to
Randolph refusing to concede the latter's right to call him to
account for "words of a general nature used in debate." He
concluded :

It is enough that I do not feel myself bound, at all times and under
any circumstances, to accept from any man, who shall choose to
risk his own life, an invitation of this sort ; although I shall always be
prepared to repel in a suitable manner the aggression of any man
who may presume upon such a refusal. 2

Friends of the two men, well aware that Randolph had only
the flimsiest excuse for his conduct, now intervened and
arranged an amicable adjustment, and Webster emerged from
the affair without loss of prestige, even with hot-headed
Southern Congressmen. Indeed, Randolph, when his blood
had cooled, was so far pacified as to send Webster, at the latter *s
request, a copy of the correspondence between them. Thus
was "honor" satisfied a century ago.

Webster's high expectations of a Congressional career had not

1 The New Hampshire Republicans still hated him, and Hill's Patriot published, on
January 16, 1816, a poem, which included the lines:

What though a Thompson or a Webster plume
Their powder'd skull-caps, with prodigious bloom;
And, high in office, loud in voice, proclaim
Each other's tide to respectful fame ?

2 Letter to Randolph, April, 1816, published in National Edition, XVII, 259.

190 DANIEL WEBSTER

been altogether realized. The House, until its novelty had
worn off, had been interesting, but he had found there the same
incompetency* the same intolerance, the same selfishness,
which were to be encountered in Portsmouth or in any other
city. Withdrawn for weeks at a time from his law practice, he
had revived his legal ambitions. 1 In February 1814 he had
been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the
United States, and, at that term, was employed in at least two
cases involving prizes of war. His first appearance as counsel
before the Supreme Bench was in the matter of the St. Lawrence
(8 Cranch, 210 C), in which certain claimants had appealed
from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of
New Hampshire. A United States vessel, going to England
after the war had started, had brought back a cargo belonging
principally to British subjects, and had been captured and con-
demned. Webster, who appeared for two of the many claim-
ants, some New York merchants, McGregor and Penniman,
was able to convince the Court that his clients had some
recognizable rights, although the decision, rendered by Judge
Henry B. Livingston, declared that the Circuit Court was
bound to confiscate the cargo of the St. Lawrence as a legitimate
prize of war. 2 At the same term, Webster was an associate
of the distinguished Samuel Dexter 3 in the case of the Grotius
(8 Cranch, 219 ff.), another prize appeal, of no great impor-
tance. This sitting of the Supreme Court was dominated by

1 Webster's first case in the United States Circuit Court was United States v. McNeal
(i Gallison, 387), tried at the May term in 1813, before Joseph Story, Circuit Judge,
and Sherburne, the District Judge. A question of perjury was involved, and, when
Webster proved that the indictment gave the wrong date, his client was acquitted.
Mason and Webster were joint counsel for the defendant, and Humphreys appeared
for the plaintiff.

2 The other attorney for the claimants was Irving, and the lawyer for the defendants
was Pitman. In this case, Webster charged one of his clients three hundred dollars
the largest single fee which he had received up to that time.

8 Samuel Dexter (1761-1816) was, in 1816, nearing the close of a brilliant legal
career. He had been United States Senator (1799-180x3), Secretary of War (1801),
and Secretary of the Treasury (1801), and had then resumed the practice of law, appear-
ing every winter before the United States Supreme Court. Once a Federalist, he had
turned Republican in 1812 on the issue of the war with England. In court, he was a
dear reasoaer and shrewd thinker, but lacked the eloquence of Pinkney,

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 191

Dexter, Robert G. Harper, and William Pinkney 3 the last named
of whom was employed in nearly ail the suits. Webster, as a
young attorney, was glad to have an opportunity of learning
how business was conducted before the highest legal tribunal
in the land.

The first appeal of any significance in which Webster was
engaged was that of The Town of Pawlet v. Daniel Clark, et aL
(9 Cranch, 292 flf.), which came up from the Vermont Circuit
Court at the February term in 1815. It involved, in the first
place, the question of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in
controversies arising between citizens of the same state claiming
land under grants of different states, when one of the states
involved had been admitted after the adoption of the Constitu-
tion. Taking a liberal interpretation of the Constitution,
Webster persuaded the Court that the clause in question
covered not only the thirteen original parties to the compact,
but also all those which had been, or might be, legally admitted
to the Union at a later date. Arguing with Pitkin for the
plaintiffs, Webster also secured a decision sustaining the
validity of a Vermont statute affecting Pawlet. A colonial
grant had divided the land set apart for the town into sixty-
eight shares, one of which had been designated as " a glebe for
the Church of England as by law established/' There being no
Church of England in Vermont before the Revolution, the town
had administered that share as Trustee, and the income from it
had later been appropriated to the use of the public schools.
The right of the town to do this was asserted by the Supreme
Court. The chief significance of the case lay in Webster's
plea for the enlargement of the jurisdiction of that tribunal.

The modest successes which Webster had enjoyed in these
cases before the Supreme Court undoubtedly stirred his
dormant ambition to build up a larger practice in his profession.
To do this, it was essential that he should escape from Ports-
mouth to a more important city, where opportunities would be
more numerous. On March 26, 1816, he wrote frankly about
his plans to Ezekid :

i 9 a DANIEL WEBSTER

I have settled my purpose to remove from New Hampshire in the
course of the summer. I have thought of Boston, New York, and
Albany, On the whole, I shall, probably, go to Boston ; although I
am not without some inducements to go into the State of New York.
Our New England prosperity and importance are passing away.
This is fact. The events of the times, the policy of England, the con-
sequences of our war, and the Ghent Treaty, have bereft us of our
commerce, the great source of our wealth. If any great scenes are to
be acted in this country within the next twenty years, New York is
the place in which those scenes are to be viewed. 1

This jeremiad, occasioned partly by the news which he
received regarding the decline of shipping in Portsmouth,
showed no vision of the prosperity which was shortly to come to
New England from her mills and manufactures. But Webster
doubtless displayed good judgment in seizing upon that
moment as opportune for moving to a wealthier and more
populous city. He could hope for very little enlargement of
his professional income if he stayed in Portsmouth. He had
gone as far as he could go in that community* and it was time
to seek a broader field.

While he was still occupied with Congressional business, his
aged mother, after some months of declining health, died
in Boscawen, at the home of Ezekiel, on April 10, 1816. On
the following day, unaware of her death;, Daniel wrote to his
brother, "I pray for her everlasting peace and happiness, and
would give her a son's blessing for all her parental goodness." 2
Congress rose on April 30, and Webster was back in Portsmouth
in early May. In June, he and his wife went to Boston to in-
spect houses, and he moved with his family to that city in Au-
gust. Only eleven years had passed since he had left Boston, an
obscure and untried law student; now he returned, with a
reputation as one of the foremost advocates in New Hampshire
and a fame almost national as a leader in Congress. There was
no danger that clients would not flock to his door.

Webster, through his change of residence, was, of course,

1 National Edition, XVI, 256.

2 Letter to Ezekiel, April ir, 1816 (National Edition, XVII, 257).

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 193

ineligible for a renoraination to Congress. His place at the
head of the Federalist ticket was taken by Jeremiah Smith;
but, despite the latter 's popularity, the Republicans won in
November by a vote of 8309 to 723 1. 1 Had Webster been a
candidate, he would undoubtedly have met the same fate, so
strong was the reaction towards Republicanism after the war.
One more session still remained of the Fourteenth Congress,
and Webster had arranged with Senator Mason to take their
wives to Washington for the winter. If the schedule as outlined
was carried out, 2 the Websters left Boston on Monday, No-
vember n, driving by "hack or gig" to Hartford, by way of
Worcester and Stafford, taking one more day to New Haven
and two days from there to New York. They spent a week
seeing the sights of New York and Philadelphia, finally reach-
ing the capital on November 31. On the following day,
Mrs. Webster sent to her brother, James W. Paige, a letter so
rich in details that we cannot help regretting that so little of
her correspondence has been preserved. In describing their
quarters, she said:

We reached this place, called a city, yesterday. Our journey was
pleasant and much less fatiguing than I expected. We have not yet
taken permanent lodgings, but shall in a day or two. We shall be,
and indeed are now, on the hilly Capitol, I should say very near the
house where Congress sits, which is a pleasant circumstance. Mr.
and Mrs. Mason, my husband and myself, make what is here termed
a mess; indeed there are to be no other lodgers in the house. 3

On December 14, after she had had time to look around* she
wrote :

I have twice been to see the ruins of the Capitol. It was more
splendid than I had imagined. The external, which is of stone, is
entire except the windows. There is considerable remains yet of
the architecturing, tho broken and defaced. . . . The Capitol is

1 The Patriot said exultingly on September 24, 1816, " Mr. Webster, the great gun,
has left the ticket." Webster wrote to Bingfyam, October 9,1816," From the symptoms
exhibited in Rockingham, I thought nothing but exertion necessary to carry the Fed.
Ticket in Nov." But he was too optimistic.

2 Letter to Mason, October 29, 1816 (National Edition, XVI, 35).

3 Van Tyne, p. 72.

i 94 DANIEL WEBSTER

directly in front of our lodgings, and if Congress sat there, it would
add much to our amusement to see them pass and repass. 1

While Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Mason made themselves
acquainted with the city, Webster himself was once more in
Congress, listlessly fulfilling his duty. He wrote to William

Sullivan, January 2, 1817:

We are doing nothing now but quarrel with one of our laws of the
last session, called the horse law (not because horses made it, for it
was made by asses), its object being to pay the Kentucky men for all
the horses which died in that country during the war. So far very
well ; but there was a section put in to pay for all houses and build-
ings burned by the enemy on account of having been a military

deposite. This played the very d . All the Niagara frontier, the

city of Washington, &c., wherever the enemy destroyed anything, was
proved to have been a military deposite; one tavern, twenty-seven
thousand dollars, because some officers or soldiers lodged in the house
a day or two before the burning ; one great rope-walk, because a rope
had been sent there to mend from the navy yard, &c. &c. Some say
the fault is in the law, some say it is in the commissioner who executed
the law ; others say there is no error in either, and others insist that
there are great errors in both. I agree with the last, as the most
probable proposition. 2

What promised to be a happy winter spent in a less rigorous
climate was rudely interrupted by the critical illness of little
Grace Fletcher Webster, who had been left with Mrs. Samuel
Webber, widow of the former President of Harvard College, in
Cambridge. Before her parents started for Washington, she
had developed what seemed to be a tumor on the neck, but
which later was diagnosed as a manifestation of an acute form
of tuberculosis. Hastily summoned, the father and mother
returned to Cambridge to find her critically ill, and within little
more than a week she was dead. 3 She had been a precocious

1 VanTyne, p. 73.

2 This letter Is published in the National Edition, XVII, 254-56, under the date of
January 2, i8/6 9 but internal evidence makes it certain that the date should be January
2, 1817.

3 Webster wrote to Ezekiel, January 26, 1817, regarding Grace : " Her death, though
I thought it inevitable, was rather sudden when it happened. Her disease, the con-
sumption, had not apparently attained its last stages. The day of her death, she was

LIFE BECOMES MORE COMPLEX 195

and delicate child, whose unselfishness had endeared her to all
the friends of the family. Mrs. Lee, who was present when
Grace died, remembered that, as Webster turned away from
the bed, "great tears coursed down his cheeks." 1

Sorrowful and alone, Webster returned to Washington and
busied himself with his appointments in the Supreme Court.
After the destruction of the Capitol in 1814, the Court had been
obliged to seek temporary quarters, and, in 1817 and 1818, it
occupied "a mean apartment of moderate size" which had been
hastily fitted up in the midst of the charred ruins of the North
Wing. This was, however, an arena where momentous issues
were being discussed, and Webster, meeting as opponents or
associates Hoffman, John Sergeant, Samuel Dexter, and
William Pinkney, found that he had to keep his wits sharpened
or fail in the competition. Pressure of Congressional business
prevented him from accepting any retainers in 1816, but he
was engaged at the February term in 1817 in several prize cases,
and he appeared for the defendant in United States v. Bevans
(3 Wheat., 336), which defined the power of the Supreme Court
over harbors in the different states. It was a period when, as
we shall see later, Chief Justice Marshall and his fellow judges
were to promulgate a series of far-reaching decisions, greatly
extending the authority of the Federal Government.

Absorbed in legal work, Webster, although still a member of
Congress, attended its sessions in a perfunctory manner. No
issue was raised which called him out of his melancholy, and he
was bored with politics. When Calhoun introduced a project
for setting aside the bonus and dividends of the Bank of the
United States to carry out a comprehensive scheme of "internal
improvements," Webster sustained him by his vote, thus
voicing his belief that Congress had full authority to devote
money to such purposes. After Madison vetoed the bill on the

pretty bright in the forenoon, though weak. In the afternoon, she grew languid and
drowsy. She, however, desired her friends to read and talk with her until a few minutes
before eleven, when her countenance suddenly altered, and in five or six minutes she
expired." (National Edition, XVII, 263-64.) EzekieTs daughter, Mary, had died
only a short time before.
1 Curtis, 1, 158.

196 DANIEL WEBSTER

pretext that it was unconstitutional, Webster was among those
who tried unsuccessfully to pass the measure over the Execu-
tive's disapproval. The significant fact is his coming out
openly for a liberal interpretation of the Constitution and for
the doctrine of "implied powers/*

The Federalist Party, to which Webster still nominally
adhered, was now disrupted as a national organization. At the
election of 1816, James Monroe had received 183 votes against
34 for Rufus King, the Federalists getting the support of only
three states Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York.
Republicanism, to Webster's disgust, was everywhere
triumphant. He remained in Washington until after March
4, seeing for the first time the ceremonies ushering a new
President into office. When his cases before the Supreme Court
had been argued, he went back to Boston and resumed the
practice of his profession. Although he always regarded
Portsmouth with affection, he seldom returned there, and his
life, almost exactly half over, was now to be lived in Massa-
chusetts and Washington. In a sense his preparation, both
as lawyer and statesman, was completed. The remainder of
his career was to show how his promise was to be fulfilled.

VIII
THE ATHENS OF AMERICA

What care though rival cities soar

Along the stormy coast,
Perm's town. New York and Baltimore,

If Boston knew the most !

EMERSON, "Boston**

I'll tell you, though, if you want to know it, what is the real offence of
Boston. It drains a large water-shed of its intellect, and will not of itself be

drained - HOLMES, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

I shall enter upon no encomium of Massachusetts ; she needs none. There
she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the
world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and
Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill ; and there they will remain for-

ever - WEBSTER, Reply to Hayne

WHEN Daniel Webster moved from Portsmouth to Boston, lie
became a resident of a place which, although still under the
town form of government, was actually the third city in the
United States in population and importance. It was a homo-
geneous community of not far from forty thousand persons,
largely of the same race, habits, and religious faith. 1 Although
the official directory had a separate list of "people of color,"
most of the inhabitants were descendants of the original British
settlers, and there was no "foreign quarter." The great
immigration of Irish to Boston did not begin until 1848. Nor
were there any "slums/* for even unskilled laborers were in
fairly comfortable circumstances. The atmosphere was that
of a large village. Clerks stopped to chat on the street corners

1 William Tudor, writing in 1819, said, "A more peculiar and unmixed character,
arising from its homogeneous population, will be found here than in any other city in
the United States." (Letters on the Eastern States, p. 319.)

i 9 8 DANIEL WEBSTER

as they walked to their offices, and ladies, from behind their
window curtains, stared curiously at strangers. 1

Although enterprising financiers were investing in mill
securities, Boston was still second only to New York in her
maritime commerce, and her extensive docks the marvel
of visitors were teeming with activity. There could be
seen every sort of vessel, from the tiny fishing smack to the
towering brig, and the harbor seemed a "forest of masts."
India Wharf and Central Wharf were lined with rows of ware-
houses, at which cargoes from all corners of the globe were
unloaded bags of ginger, cases of nutmeg and cinnamon,
bales of palm leaf, and hogsheads of molasses. In Boston
drawing-rooms were carved ebony elephants, teakwood tables,
silk draperies from the Orient, and porcelain vases in colors
which seemed the product of witchery. Along the water front,
Boston was exotic, and one could learn there something of

The beauty and mystery of the ships
And the magic of the sea.

The Boston of the first half of the nineteenth century was
both primitive and romantic. The standardizing process which
has made American cities so much alike had not yet done its
deadly work. The downtown streets, many of them so narrow
that two vehicles could barely pass, were paved in the middle
with cobblestones from the neighboring beaches ; and the over-
hanging second stories of the houses and shops made the town
look as mediaeval as York or Niirnberg. A foreigner spoke of
the streets as "scarcely more than lanes, which at noontime
are choked with good-natured strollers/' The oysterman and
the lobsterman still plaintively called their wares, and the
lamplighter, with his ladder and torch, was a picturesque
figure on his rounds just before sunset. Pipes for lighting the
city by gas were first laid in 1826, and, before that, candles
and whale oil were the only sources of illumination. Pound-

1 Describing the Boston of his boyhood, Henry Cabot Lodge said, "It was possible
to grasp one's little world, and to know and be known by everybody in one's own
fragment of society." (Lodge, Early Memories, p. 18.)

THE ATHENS OF AMERICA 199

keepers and fence-viewers were chosen annually at the Town
Meeting, held In the Old State House, at the head of State
Street. The Town Crier rang his bell from the steps of the
Exchange Coffee House to announce a missing child or a lost
pocketbook. There too was the headquarters for importers
and brokers, who gathered for final informal conferences at
"Change Hour" before strolling to their homes for a three
o'clock dinner. Some wealthy Bostonians still went person-
ally to market in Faneuil Hall before breakfast and brought
home the food for luncheon in a basket. The town was gov-
erned, as a rule, by intelligent, well-educated, public-spirited
leaders. For many years Charles Bulfinch, the eminent archi-
tect, was Chairman of the Board of Selectmen and Superin-
tendent of Police. The first Mayor, who took office on May i,
1822, was the aristocratic John Phillips, and his successor was
Josiah Quincy, in whose veins flowed the bluest blood of Boston.

No one can comprehend the operations of Webster's mind
without understanding the community of which he was a
part. He was, at times, a very independent thinker, but he
was also peculiarly susceptible to his surroundings, and he was
profoundly affected by Massachusetts traditions. Webster
helped to mould public opinion in Boston, but he was also
moulded by it. He carried into the Senate a message to the
nation from State Street and Beacon Hill.

In extent, the Boston of 1820 was much smaller than that
of a century later. 1 Retail business was confined to a limited
section on Washington Street, Scollay Square, Hanover, Court,
and State Streets, and, inevitably, the harbor front.
Much of the district known as Back Bay was then mud flats
and salt marsh, and the land in that locality now adorned
with massive structures of steel and brick was once submerged.
During Bulfinch's active administration, the Mill Pond at the
foot of Beacon Hill was filled with earth scraped from the peak

1 Edward Everett Hale's A New England 'Boyhood offers a charming picture of
Boston in the early nineteenth century. See also the Life, Letters^ and Journals of
George Ticknor, and Morison's Harrison Gray Otis and Maritime History of Massa-
chusetts. Josiah Quincy's Figures of the Past has some interesting material, as does
Mark A. DeW. Howe's Boston.

200 DANIEL WEBSTER

behind the State House, thus adding seventy acres to the north
end of the town ; and Charles Street was laid out over a swamp.
The Mill Dam, available for travelers in 1821, connected Beacon
Street with Brookline and gave Boston an important outlet
to the main land. Webster's Boston included the territory
around Beacon Hill and extending south and east to the
wharves. Emerson wrote of it,

" Each street leads downward to the sea,
Or landward to the west."

The Bulfinch State House, with the dignified fagade, natu-
rally dominated the landscape and was one of the sights to
which visitors were first taken. Park Street, recently opened
up as an approach to the Capitol, was lined with new and at-
tractive residences. 1 At its foot was the Park Street Church
on what came to be known as Brimstone Corner because of
the incendiary nature of the Calvinistic theology there ex-
pounded. King's Chapel and the Granary Burying Ground
have been little changed by the passage of years, and St. Paul's
was dedicated in 1820. Webster himself usually attended
the Old Brattle Street Church, where what John Adams styled
"the politest congregation in Boston" gathered on Sundays,
both morning and afternoon, to listen to Dr. Palfrey. 2 Fan-
euil Hall, remodeled and enlarged by the indefatigable Bul-
finch, looked then much as it does to-day, except for the motor
traffic which encircles it. Quincy Market was not completed
until 1827. The Court House, built on School Street in 1810,
has long since been superseded by the more imposing edifice
which overshadows Pemberton Square.

The historic Common, then ornamented by only a few scat-
tered elms, was "a piece of pasture land with a small pond in
the middle, and surrounded by low wooden posts with one or

1 Several of these houses are still standing, somewhat altered, most of them being
occupied by business concerns. Their outline, silhouetted against the sky, is pictur-
esque when viewed from the Common.

2 John G. Palfrey, who succeeded " young Mr. Everett " in 1818, was pastor of the
Brattle Street Church until 1824. Three of Webster's children Julia, Edward, and
Charles were baptized in that church.

THE ATHENS OF AMERICA 201

two rails between them.' 9 Cows still grazed there, and the
children of "the solid men of Boston" played marbles or flew
their kites unmolested by the police, or even fished in the muddy
Frog Pond. As late as 1847, an indignant citizen wrote to the
Journal objecting to "the pestiferous dusting of dirty carpets**
on the Common. Along Beacon Street " the sunny street that
holds the sifted few" were some noble mansions, including
that of John Hancock, next to the State House, and that of John
Phillips, of brick, still standing on the corner of Walnut Street.
On Chestnut and Mount Vernon Streets, and their tributary
avenues, were many houses bearing the Bulfinch stamp, and
the neighborhood was becoming fashionable. After 1829,
Webster's friend, George Ticknor, occupied the stately resi-
dence at the corner of Park and Beacon Streets, " the best
location in Boston," where he could overlook the Common
and in which he welcomed many noted people, exerting such
an influence that one of his friends proposed that the name of
Boston be changed to Ticknorville. On the Tremont Street
side of the Common, there rose, in 1830, the splendid Masonic
Temple ; * and not far away, on the corner of Tremont and
West Streets, were the Washington Gardens, a favorite resort
of the pleasure-loving, which delighted their habitues in May
1817 by installing gas lights for illumination. The distinctive
feature of Tremont Street, however, was Colonnade Row, a
line of nineteen four-story brick buildings constructed by Bul-
finch, in which at various times dwelt many of Webster's closest
friends, including Jeremiah Mason, Benjamin Rich, Peleg
Sprague, and Benjamin Gorham.

Taverns, like the Indian Queen and The Bunch of Grapes,
still allured travelers with large swinging signs. The Exchange
Coffee House, in Congress Square near State Street, was re-
puted to be " the most capacious building and the most exten-
sive establishment of its kind in the United States." 2 In

1 The site is now occupied by the department store of the R. H. Stearns Company.

2 The famous Exchange Coffee House was built in 1808, from designs by Bulfinch,
of stone, marble, and brick, and was seven stories high. Here President Monroe was
entertained during his visit to Boston in 1817. It was almost totally destroyed by fire
on November 3, 1818.

DANIEL WEBSTER

^ the small boys used to coast down Beacon and School
Streets, past the Latin School., where the present Parker House
has its entrance.

Poring over the yellow and brittle newspapers of that period,
we are in touch with a world far removed from ours. We read
that, on June 15, 1820, three pirates were hanged in public
at ten in the morning ; that the Plymouth Beach Lottery was
in operation and prizes would soon be awarded ; and that old
Madeira was for sale openly by the cask. But human nature
was the same then as now. Dr. Rolfe's Botanical Drops and
Dr. Meade's Antidyspeptic Pills are no longer sold, but they
have their substitutes to-day* The Extract of Roses, "for
cleaning, preserving, and beautifying the hair," sounds very
modern. And for amusements, Bostonians could choose, in
December 1820, between a performance on the "musical
glasses'* or Bamwdl, or the London Apprentice y advertised to
begin "at 6 precisely/' The only holidays were Washington's
Birthday, Fast Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving.
No one had thought of a Saturday half-holiday.

The circle to which the Websters were admitted was per-
haps as exclusive and as cultured as any to be found on this
side of the Atlantic. The members were near neighbors,
meeting constantly on the streets or at social gatherings. 1
Many of them had amassed fortunes in foreign trade and had
accumulated heirlooms through several generations. They
owned houses in which the furniture, according to Edward
Everett Hale, was "stately, solid, and expensive," and the
table linen and silver exquisite. Dinner parties were com-
monly held in the afternoon, with suppers of a less formal char-
acter at nine in the evening. Decanters of wine ornamented
every sideboard, including that of Daniel Webster, and, after
the ladies had retired, the bottle was passed freely. Nothing
about the entertaining was ostentatious, but there was a great
deal of "cheerful, frank hospitality, and easy social inter-

1 Rnssell Sturgis spoke of Boston society as " like a large family party," and added,
" There were many who could announce the precise degree of relationship between any
two people in any assembly."

THE ATHENS OF AMERICA 203

course." There being no great discrepancies in wealth, few tried
to outdo the others in extravagance. Among the chief families
were the Derbys, Otises, Lawrences, Cabots, Amorys, Lymans,
Lowells, Minots, Boylstons, Langdons, Adamses, and Blakes,
the descendants of many of whom may be found in Boston's
Social Register.

Like all those who have acquired possessions, these Bos-
tonians were distrustful of changes, fearing that they might
lose if the established order were overturned. They wished to
keep their own world stable and unaltered. They were not
interested in those who wanted to undertake reforms. The
day had not come when a craze for organization was to pro-
duce the countless societies for the relief of the poor and suffer-
ing which now flourish in Boston. Webster's friends were
generous, but in an unscientific fashion, and they lived their
lives quite untroubled by the ills and wants of any "submerged
tenth." As for pacifists, and feminists, and abolitionists,
and communists, and prohibitionists, they did not yet exist.
Not for a decade or more was Boston to become, in the words
of Dr. Frothingham, "remarkable for explosions of mind/'

Into such a group Daniel Webster was welcomed by congenial
spirits who recognized his intellectual and social kinship with
themselves. It was a far cry from the simple fare and crude
furnishings of The Elms to the brilliance of Captain Israel
Thorndike's dinners, but Webster was entirely at ease in his
luxurious environment. The awkward rustic had been trans-
formed, almost without realizing it, into an aristocrat on the
British model, who loved comfort and longed for an estate where
he could move like a lord among his retainers. In certain ob-
vious respects, Boston society was enervating, creating and
fostering prejudices and producing a narrow point of view
among those long subjected to its influence. But Webster had
the stamina to resist its provincialism, although he was unable
entirely to stand out against the temptation to easy living. 1

1 Josiah P. Quincy, writing in 1881 of Boston in the early part of that century, said:
" Many of the peculiarities of Puritanism had been softened, and so much of the old
severity as remained supported the moral standards which the God-fearing founders

ao 4 DANIEL WEBSTER

Webster was soon thoroughly Bostonian in his tendencies
and habits. The Athenaeum Library, established in 1807, had
a list of distinguished proprietors, to which his name was added
as early as 1822, when it moved from Tremont Street to Pearl
Street He was soon elected to that institution which called
itself proudly "tfae Historical Society/* 1 and he belonged to
a famous dinner club, which met every Saturday. He was
on the Committee of Thirteen, appointed in 1821 to frame a
municipal charter, some of his associates being Josiah Quincy,
William Tudor, William Prescott, and Lemuel Shaw, with
John Phillips as Chairman. Beginning with his much-dis-
cussed Speech on the Tariff, on October 2, 1821, he spoke
again and again in Faneuil Hall, until it seemed as if that audi-
torium were incomplete without his bodily presence on the
platform.

Boston was not yet the literary and cultural centre which
it was to become in the days when Emerson and Longfellow
and Holmes and Lowell walked the streets. It did, however,
enjoy a reputation as an intellectual oasis where the liberal
arts were respected. Harvard College and its faculty gave
a certain tone to society, and Commencement at Cambridge
was one of the notable events of the year. Visiting foreigners
were entertained at Harvard, and, from there, found their way
to Beacon Hill. The sons of Webster's associates were enrolled
almost automatically under Presidents Kirkland and Quincy,
and Fletcher Webster graduated there in 1833,

It is essential to keep in mind that Daniel Webster became
the authentic and trusted representative of the merchants, the
bankers, and the professional men who were clustered in offices
around State Street. They were his clients, and his daily
associates when he was in the city. Through them he made

of the State had raised. A few men were accepted as the leaders of the community
and lived under a wholesome conviction of responsibility for its good behavior. If the
representatives of good society were in no sense cosmopolitan, their provincialism was
honest, manly, and intelligent."

1 The Massachusetts Historical Society, the oldest organization of the kind in the
United States, was founded in January 1791. On its rolls are most of the most dis-
tinguished men of Boston.

THE ATHENS OF AMERICA 205

his living, and from them, in some degree, he derived his opin-
ions. Webster was identified with the so-called "upper
classes." While he was in no sense a "snob/* he lacked the
democratic spirit of such leaders as Jefferson, Jackson, and
Lincoln. Like many patricians, he was popular with servants 5
but he was out of touch with the great bulk of humanity
those who patiently carry on the dull routine and bear the
burdens of the world. More and more he was thrown^ through
his profession, with the rich, the cultured, and the well-born,
and his attitude towards current problems was thereby pro-
foundly affected.

According to Webster's own evidence, he and Mrs. Webster
came to Boston to live on August 14, 1816, bringing with them
their two children, Grace and Daniel Fletcher. For two or
three weeks they boarded with a Mrs. Delano, but Webster
soon rented from ex-Senator Jonathan Mason a house on the
north side of Mount Vernon Street, only a few rods from the
State House. 1 In December 1819 he bought a home at
37 Somerset Street, 2 on a site now covered by the City Prison,
a part of the Boston Court House which was constructed in
1886. It was then a select residence district, but conditions
in the vicinity make it now seem quite different. Webster
sold his place in 1822, and, on May 10, went with his family
to spend the summer at the house of a Mr. Welles, in Dor-
chester, one of the suburbs. On their return to the city in
November, they took lodgings with a Mrs. Le Kains, in Pearl
Street, nearer the harbor. 3 During the summer season of

1 This house is still standing at No. 57 Mount Vernon Street and is probably little
changed since Webster's day. It has four stories, with a very handsome grilled iron
balcony opening from the second-story window at the left, over the front door. It sits
some fifty feet back from the street, and the lawn in front is surrounded by an iron
fence. For interesting details regarding this house, which was built in 1804, see Cham-
berlain's Beacon Hill (1925), pp. 95-96. The first story is stone, the others brick.
Webster was succeeded as a tenant by Reverend Sereno Dwight, of the Park Street
Church. It was later the residence of Charles Francis Adams.

2 It was an immense square, three-storied house, with the stone steps of the front
porch rising directly from the street, and a narrow alley on the south side. It was later
the home of Abbott Lawrence.

3 Pearl Street, even as late as the " 4o's," was a charming residence quarter, in which
were fine old houses.

2o6 DANIEL WEBSTER

1823 they were again in Dorchester; but Mrs. Webster, with
Julia and Edward, accompanied him to Washington in the
autumn, remaining until the following June. 1 After another
summer in Dorchester, Webster moved in November 1824 into
a house belonging to Israel Thorndike on the corner of High
and Summer Streets, 2 an imposing brick dwelling, set somewhat
back from the road, with a garden surrounding it. Lined as
it was with superb horse-chestnut trees, Summer Street was a
shaded avenue with an eighteenth-century atmosphere. The
first shop is said to have invaded it in 1847, and it is now de-
voted entirely to business. Daniel Webster Square as the
junction of Summer, High, and South Streets is called to-day
is a very crowded spot, through which most of the commuters
from the near-by South Station walk to their offices. There
is nothing to remind one of the more leisurely days when Daniel
Webster had his home there.

He had agreeable neighbors. Next to him, to the north,
lived the hospitable Captain Israel Thorndike, 3 with whom he
became so intimate that the latter built a passageway between
the two houses so that they could be used together for large
receptions. 4 On Summer Street also lived John Lowell, Jona-
than Callender, Charles P. Curtis, and Chief Justice Isaac
Parker, as well as many retired shipowners, who liked to be
within easy walking distance of the wharves.

1 Webster preserved these details in an interesting manuscript called " Autobio-
graphical Notts," owned by the New Hampshire Historical Society and printed in
National Edition, XIII, 549-51.

2 This house was torn down about 1860 and replaced by " a splendid block of stores
called Webster's buildings.'* These were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1872, and a
modern block was erected on the same site, at Nos. 136 and 138. This structure,
called the Webster Building, is occupied now by mercantile establishments, and the
ground floor is used by the Waldorf Lunch Company. It is five stories high and bears
a large carved stone inscription, *' The Home of Daniel Webster."

3 Israel Thorndike (1755-1832), born in Beverly, accumulated a large fortune in
shipping and moved about 1800 to Boston, where he increased his wealth by judicious
investments, chiefly in real estate. He was said at this period to be the richest man
in Boston, and he left at his death an estate appraised at nearly $1,200,000.

4 It was through this device that Webster secured sufficient space for his reception to
General Lafayette on June 17, 1825, after the Bunker Hill Oration. On February 2,
1826, Ticknor wrote Webster, " We went the other night to a great ball at Colonel
Thorndike\ a part of which extended into your house, which it was not altogether
agreeable to enter without finding its owner there to welcome us.** (Ticknor, 1, 371.)

THE ATHENS OF AMERICA 207

In his serene and comfortable family life, Webster found
solace from the tribulations of his profession. The loss of
his daughter. Grace, in 1817, had been hard to bear, but a
year later, on January 16, 1818, in the house on Mount Ver~
non Street, a second daughter was' born. His eldest son*
Daniel Fletcher Webster, usually known as Fletcher,
was by that date a boy of nearly five years. He had two more
children Edward, born on July 20, 1820, and Charles, born
on December 31, 1822, both in the Somerset Street house.
The latter, however, died on December 18, 1824, in the Summer
Street house, leaving only Fletcher and Edward as Webster's
male heirs. During the early years in Boston, Mrs. Webster's
time was so filled with domestic duties that she had little leisure
for attending dinners and balls. One servant, Hannah, who
had been with them since their Portsmouth days, was suffi-
cient for their normal needs. Mrs. Webster, who had no
ambition to be a society matron, certainly did not maintain
the style of some of her husband's clients ; but she was a popu-
lar member of a select circle of ladies and did her share of infor-
mal entertainirtg.

All contemporary descriptions of Webster agree in por-
traying him as a handsome and impressive man. Physically
he was much more robust and was gradually putting on
weight. He was slightly above five feet, ten inches tall, with,
a head which seemed abnormally large even for his muscular
shoulders. His dark eyes were conspicuous for their rich glow,
and his abundant hair was still a deep black. Mrs. Lee wrote,
"The majestic beauty of his countenance was never more
striking than at this period." * Although there were months
when he had little rest, the effects of good eating were begin-
ning to be manifest. With the passing of youth he acquired the
stern and portentous dignity which made him such an imposing
figure. Soon the slender schoolmaster of Fryeburg had been
metamorphosed into a stalwart man who tipped the scales at
nearly two hundred pounds and who had exchanged his earlier
vivacity for a slow stateliness which was awesome to strangers.

1 National Edition, XVII, 440.

208 DANIEL WEBSTER

He was usually up with the sun, waking the other members
of the household by singing his favorite hymns. The family
breakfasted together in unhurried, patriarchal fashion, and
the father was very attentive to his children and their unceas-
ing prattle. He then walked to the office/ and did not return
until two or three o'clock in the afternoon, unmistakably fa-
tigued and hungry. After a heavy dinner, he would throw him-
self upon the sofa, where his children would gather, eager to
be as near him as possible. Mrs. Lee noted that, if visitors
called in the evening, "Mr. Webster was too much exhausted
to take a very active part in the conversation." 2 He con-
stantly taxed his glorious physique and his steady nerves to
the utmost, requiring many hours for recuperation. At this
period he did not, apparently, use tobacco, either for smoking
or for snuff, and, while he enjoyed his Madeira, we do not
hear that he drank to excess.

With most people Webster seems to have been rather grave,
if not solemn, in his manner, but he had his moments of relaxa-
tion, and even of frivolity. Ticknor, writing on August 17,
1826, regarding Webster's Oration on Adams and Jefferson,
said, "He was at our house the evening before, entirely dis-
encumbered and careless ; and dined with us unceremoniously
after it was over, as playful as a kitten/ 7 3 He was not, how-
ever, a quick or clever conversationalist, and nobody has re-
corded any remarkable specimen of wit or repartee. In serious
discussions he was always ready to do his part. Ticknor men-
tions a dinner at the home of Isaac P. Davis, when Webster
'* talked a good deal about Europe," having been reading up
on that subject.

1 Fletcher Webster could remember his father when they lived on Mount Vernon
Street, ** dressed in a frock coat, with tight pantaloons, a pair of long blucher boots
reaching to the knee and adorned with a tassel, a bell-crowned beaver hat set a little
on the side of his head, and a riding whip in his hand, as he proceeded to mount his
horse for his morning ride.*' (Harvey, p. 318.)

2 Webster belonged to the type of worker who, to quote Dr. William Osier, " loves
to see the sun rise " and " comes to breakfast with a cheerful morning face, never so
fit as at 6 A.M./* as contrasted with the man who is saturnine in the morning and then
slowly gains in good humor as the day draws on, until he is at his best by midnight.
(Oskr, The Student Life.*)

3 Ticknor, I, 379.

THE ATHENS OF AMERICA 209

Webster's first office in Boston was on the northern corner of
Franklin Avenue, a narrow alley running from Comhill to
Court Street, which it entered at a point near the present Old
Colony Trust Company. Later he rented more commodious
quarters on the second floor of a building on the northern cor-
ner of Court and Tremont Streets, only a short distance from
the Court House and the banking and commercial section.
He was often away from home, sometimes in Washington at
sessions of the Supreme Court, 1 and frequently in various New
England cities.

He seems to have entered almost at once upon a lucrative
practice, and his retainers, especially after the publicity which
he derived from the Dartmouth College Case, show a sub-
stantial advance. For the year extending from August 14,
1818, to August 12, 1819, he received in fees the sum of $15,181,
excluding "several small affairs and sums under ten dollars/' 2
He charged $2000 for appearing for the Bank of the United
States in McCullough v. Maryland. During the years immedi-
ately following, however, his fees seem to have diminished,
and Curtis's estimate that his professional income from 1818
to 1823, when he entered Congress for the second time, was
not far from $20,000 is probably much exaggerated. 3 For a
young man who, in Portsmouth, had never taken in more than
$2000 annually, he was, however, doing very well. Certainly
his courage in declining the Clerkship of the Hillsborough
County Court had been amply rewarded.

Even if this book were devoted exclusively to Webster's

1 In a letter to Justice Story, January 2, 1821, Webster gives an interesting account
of one such trip to Washington, which occupied from Saturday noon to Wednesday
afternoon. Webster said, "Our journey was safe and expeditious.** (National
Edition, XVII, 314.)

2 See Ibid., p. 291 if., for a full statement of Webster's professional receipts during
this year.

z According to Webster's own manuscript record (printed in National Edition, XVII,
545), his fees for the five years from 1818 to 1823 were as follows: August 14, 1818-
August 12, 1819, f 15,181; 1819-20, $8393; 1820-21, $10,240^ 1821-22, $12,805;
1822-23, $5095. The total is 151,714, an average of approximately $10,342 a year.
For the year extending from September 1827 to September 1828, he took in (including
his pay as Senator) about $ 16,000. On the basis of Webster's own books, there was no
year up to 1832 when his legal income was above $ 17,000.

no DANIEL WEBSTER

legal career, it would be impossible to treat in any detail
the multitudinous cases in which he participated. Although
he was primarily what we call today a "corporation lawyer,"
he was engaged in suits of every conceivable kind, criminal
as well as civil, and involving a variety of principles. Among
his clients were many of Boston's foremost citizens, including
Harrison Gray Otis, George Crowninshield, James Otis, Samuel
Hubbard, George Blake, John Brooks, and others. He was
retained in 1819 by John Jacob Astor, and he made a note of
having received, on January 2 of that year, $400 "Of Casus
Extraordinarius" a mysterious reference which will probably
never be elucidated.

It was not long before Webster, by the common consent of
those familiar with his practice, both in Boston and in Wash-
ington, was placed at the head of the American bar. "That
Mr Webster was the foremost American lawyer of his time,"
declared Senator George F. Hoar, "as well in the capacity to
conduct jury trials as to argue questions of law before the full
court, will not, I think, be seriously questioned by anybody
who has read the reports of his legal arguments or who has
studied the history of his encounters before juries with antago-
nists like Choate or Pinkney*" This high estimate of Web-
ster's genius is corroborated by the unsolicited testimony of
such eminent advocates as Rufus Choate^ Charles O'Conor,
Isaac Parker, and William H. Seward. 1

Of many of Webster's nisi prius cases hardly a mention can
be found, even in contemporary newspapers, and we have to
rely on gossip and tradition for the details of what must have
been interesting litigation. A trial which greatly appealed
to the public at the time was that of the Kenniston brothers,
at Ipswich, in April 1817, for the alleged robbery of Major

1 Choate perceived in Webster " a whole clask of qualities which made him, for any
description of trial by jury whatever, criminal or civil, by even a more universal assent,
foremost." Seward, speaking in the Senate, declared of Webster that " the fifty
thousand lawyers in the United States conceded to him an unapproachable supremacy
at the bar," Justice Sprague, of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, said of him,
** In consultation no man was ever more weighty ; in trials at the bar no man was his
equal.'*

THE ATHENS OF AMERICA 211

Elijah P. Goodridge. 1 According to a tale related by Good-
ridge, and substantiated in part by facts, he had been
assaulted about nine o'clock on a December evening while
riding on the highway between Newburyport and Exeter, and
had been dragged from his horse, relieved of a considerable
sum in cash and notes, and beaten until he was unconscious.
Afterwards, apparently in a state of delirium, he crawled to
the nearest tavern, where, to prove his fantastic story, he dis-
played a small bullet wound in the palm of his left hand, between
the third and fourth fingers. He later recovered sufficiently
to guide some persons to the scene of the attack, where many
of his possessions were scattered on the ground. He accused
the Kennistons of the crime, identified as his own a piece of
gold which he claimed to have unearthed under a pork barrel
in their cellar, and had them brought to trial. The circum-
stantial evidence was very strong, and the Kennistons, in spite
of their guileless simplicity and previous good reputation, were
in some danger of being convicted.

Webster, on his way home from the Congressional session,
heard the details from a Mr. Perkins, of Newburyport, who
rode with him in the stage from Providence to Boston and
offered as a theory the startling suggestion that Major Good-
ridge, in order to avoid paying some of his debts, had concocted
the whole tale, and, for the sake of realism, had shot himself
deliberately through the inside of the left hand. On the follow-
ing morning, after breakfast in Boston, Webster was called
upon by two gentlemen from Newburyport, who told him that
a fund had been subscribed for the defense of the Kennistons
and urged him to take the case. Weary from his long trip,
he at first refused, but finally yielded to their appeals and,
with only a few days of preparation, appeared in court. It was
his first case in Essex County, and a great throng packed the
courtroom to hear him. 2

1 The name is also spelled Goodrich. Both forms seem to have been used in the
newspapers of the period.

2 The story as related by Harvey (Reminiscences , pp. 97-102) contains some dis-
crepancies and a few misstatements, but tells the gist of the trial.

DANIEL WEBSTER

At the trial itself, Webster's genius was demonstrated in
his cross-examination of Goodridge, who, embarrassed when
called upon to explain how the wound happened to be on the
inside of his hand, was cleverly drawn into some palpable con-
tradictions in his evidence. To account to the jury for Good-
ridge's peculiar conduct, Webster argued that the latter, orig-
inally actuated merely by a desire to avoid his obligations
or perhaps also by a passion for notoriety, had been forced, by
the course of events, into the necessity of casting the blame on
somebody; and he built up the plausible theory that Good-
ridge, intending only to shoot himself through the coat sleeve,
had by accident perforated his hand. Webster's earnest and
impressive manner had a moving effect on the jury, who
promptly acquitted the Kennistons. Later Webster success-
fully defended one Jackson, another victim of Goodridge's
malicious charges ; and when still another, Ebenezer Pearson,
brought an action for damages against Goodridge, Webster
recovered a verdict for the plaintiff to the amount of $2ooo. 1
Eventually Goodridge, completely discredited, left New Eng-
land for parts unknown. Some years later, when Webster,
on a trip to Niagara Falls, was spending the night at an inn
near Geneva, New York, he noticed that the barkeeper seemed
very much agitated at his appearance. Later he ascertained
that the unfortunate Goodridge had sought in the obscurity
of that country tavern a refuge from the indiscretions of his
past. 2

Cases of this kind, fascinating though they are to the lay-
man, were not reported in the court records. If we turn the
pages of the Reports of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massa-
chusetts and of the Circuit Court of the United States for the
First Circuit, we find Webster's name mentioned in connection
with many decisions, some of them of the highest importance
to lawyers. His first appearance in the Supreme Judicial

1 The Boston Advertiser, on January 8, 1819, speaking of Webster's argument in this
case, said, '* On this occasion we witnessed a degree in ingenuity, a chain of close logical
reasoning, and a force of eloquence seldom exhibited in this or any other court."

2 This sequel appears in two slightly different versions, one in Harvey, pp. 101-2,
and the other in Curtis, 1, 175.

THE ATHENS OF AMERICA 213

Court of Massachusetts was to have been for the defendant
in Nightman v. Coates (15 Mass., i), a suit for breach of promise,
but it was called for the March term in 1818, when he was in
Washington very much occupied with the Dartmouth College
Case, and he was obliged to be absent. At the October term
in 1818, he was associated with Phinney for the plaintiff in
Thomas Cochran v. The Inhabitants of Camden (15 Mass*> 296).
The earliest instance of his appearing in that court as sole
counsel was in Welsh v. Barrett (15 Mass., 380), called at the
March term in 1819, in which he argued unsuccessfully for the
plaintiff in a matter involving a promissory note, the real point
at issue being whether the memorandum book of a bank mes-
senger, deceased, could be admitted as evidence.

Biographers have expressed some astonishment at the ra-
pidity with which Webster climbed to a leading position at the
Massachusetts bar. As a matter of fact, he was well known
in legal circles long before he took the decisive step of settling
in Boston. Stories of his effectiveness in the courtroom had
drifted down from New Hampshire, and many Boston attor-
neys, retained in cases which were tried in that state, had
reason to remember his prowess. Furthermore his Congres-
sional experience had brought him into rather intimate rela-
tionship with such distinguished Bostonians as Francis Cabot
Lowell and George Cabot, and he was already acquainted with
Christopher Gore. He came to Boston under the best of
auspices, with his character and capability guaranteed.

Boston was a city in which rivalry among lawyers was keen
and merciless. Two of the greatest Theophilus Parsons
and Samuel Dexter died not long before Webster's arrival.
But there were others who had made their reputations and,
in their prime, were formidable competitors. Among them
were William Prescott, twenty years Webster's senior, who had
moved to Boston from Salem in 1808 and was unequaled as a
maritime and insurance specialist ; Samuel Hubbard, who had
come to Boston in 1810 after a successful career in Biddeford,
Maine, and who was to end as a Judge of the Supreme Judicial
Court of Massachusetts ; Charles Jackson, who had left New-

2i 4 DANIEL WEBSTER

buiyport in 1802 to open an office in Boston, and had been
appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court only ten years later ;
Benjamin Gorham, the brilliant son of a brilliant father; Wil-
liam Sullivan, a masterly orator, who was long the President
of the Suffolk Bar Association; Lemuel Shaw, who, in 1830,
succeeded Isaac Parker as Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial
Court, serving in that office for almost thirty years; and a
group of promising younger men, like Samuel Hoar, Marcus
Morton, Franklin Dexter, Peleg Sprague, and Charles G. Lor-
ing, each of whom was to make his mark in state and national
affairs. Not one of them was a Dartmouth man. All but
two of them Hubbard and Morton were graduates of
Harvard, but they gave to him the right hand of fellowship
as if he were akin to themselves in antecedents and spirit.

It was not long before Webster's transcendent talents made
him as supreme among these gifted lawyers as he had been at
the bar of Portsmouth. His practice extended outside the
county of Suffolk, into Essex, Middlesex, and Plymouth, and
to sections even more distant. Whenever an important case
arose, the first impulse of each litigant was to secure the aid of
Daniel Webster. But it was his work before the Supreme
Court of the United States which won for him a truly national
reputation.

IX
THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE

Our college cause will be known to our children's children.

WEBSTER, Letter to Hopkinson, March 22, 1819

It is the legitimate business of government to see that contracts are ful-
filled, that charters are kept inviolate, and the foundations of human con-
fidence not rudely or wantonly disturbed.

JOHN FISKE

To many people, especially lawyers, but most of all to Dart-
mouth graduates, the name of Daniel Webster brings up the
picture of a small crowded courtroom in Washington. Chief
Justice John Marshall, his robes draped carelessly about him
and his hands tightly clasped on his desk, presides with dignity.
He and his associates, as well as the audience, have been sitting
for three hours enthralled by the persuasive tones of the orator
a heavy, broad-chested man, firm as a pyramid of granite,
with a domed forehead and gloomy eyes that pierce the soul.
The speaker pauses, as if in sorrowful meditation. No one
stirs. Then, under the influence of an emotion which even to-
day, after all these years, sets our pulses throbbing, he begins
again, with quivering lips and tremulous voice, "It is, sir, as I
have said, a small college and yet there are those who love
it. ..." Daniel Webster is finishing his argument in the
Dartmouth College Case.

"Dartmouth College v. Woodward (4 Wheat., 518) was argued
by Webster for the plaintiff before the Supreme Court of the
United States in 1818 and decided in his client's favor in Febru-
ary 1819. The complicated issues involved have been fre-
quently analyzed, and the history and significance of the case

6 DANIEL WEBSTER

have been exhaustively treated by competent legal authorities. 1
Here it will be examined mainly with regard to the conspicuous
part taken by Daniel Webster in its permanent settlement.
Around the Dartmouth College Case, as it is commonly
called, as around few others in the annals of the Supreme
Court, a romantic tradition has developed. There is, further-
more, the fact that it has been cited more than a thousand
times in subsequent litigations, and that, to quote Henry
Cabot Lodge, "it extended the jurisdiction of the highest
federal court more than any other judgment ever rendered by
them/* 2

Stripped of technicalities and nonessentials, the immediate
issue decided by the Dartmouth College Case was the inviola-
bility of the charter of incorporation of an institution of learn-
ing. It settled the question as to whether the charter was
a contract at all, within the meaning of the Constitution, and
answered the query, "Does the legislature of a state have the
power, under the Constitution of the United States, to modify
or abrogate a charter legally granted in all good faith to a
college ?** By implication it involved the whole subject of
the stability of contracts, and thus affected other institutions
founded and endowed in the same manner as Dartmouth. In
another sense, it was a phase of the historic conflict during the
formative days of the Republic between conservatives and
liberals, Federalists and Democrats, John Marshall and Thomas
Jefferson. It need hardly be said that Daniel Webster was on
the side of established order.

The original charter of Dartmouth College, granted in 1769,
was signed in the name of George III by John Wentworth,
"Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the Province

1 The fullest account is contained in John M. Shirley's The Dartmouth College Causes
and the Supreme Court of the United States (1879), a badly arranged but indispensable
book. Charles Warren discusses the case in his The Supreme Court in United States
History (1922), I, 474 ff., and Albert J. Beveridge in his John Marshall (1919), IV, 220-
81. See also " Historical Note on the Dartmouth College Case," by Charles Warren,
in American Law Review for 1912, Vol. XLVL There are some sane comments on the
case in Tucker's My Generation (1919), pp. 271-96.

2 Lodge, Webster v p. 96. This book, although often grossly unjust to Webster,
contains a very intelligent account of the Dartmouth College Case.

THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE 217

of New Hampshire/' 1 The project was the outgrowth of what
had been a charity school for Indians, founded at Lebanon,
Connecticut, by a philanthropic clergyman, Eleazar Wheelock,
who had raised in England funds amounting to more than
eleven thousand pounds from various persons of benevolent
tendencies, headed by William, Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary
for the Colonies. This royal charter created the institution
since known as Dartmouth College; appointed Wheelock as
President, with the privilege of designating his successor
who was, however, subject to removal by the trustees; and
established "one body corporate and politick in deed, action,
and name," made up of twelve members, to be called the
Trustees of Dartmouth College, with ample authority to buy,
receive, and hold lands, to fill vacancies on the Board, and to
make all necessary laws, rules, and regulations for the institu-
tion. Under this charter forming a perpetual and self-per-
petuating corporation, Dartmouth College was opened in the
town of Hanover, on the east bank of the Connecticut, and
had endured, through various vicissitudes, for nearly half a
century. It was the ninth and last of the colonial colleges.

Even the American Revolution had not broken the con-
tinuity of Dartmouth College. Eleazar Wheelock, dying In
1779, bequeathed the presidency to his son, John, and when the
latter took over his father's duties at Hanover a majority of the
trustees were in sympathy with him and the Wheelock family
tradition. As age crept upon him, however, John Wheelock
grew obstinate and tenacious of authority, and lost the respect
of most of the undergraduates. The membership of the Board,
meanwhile, had gradually changed, and several of the new men
were less subservient to Wheelock's wishes.

For diverse reasons, political, economic, and religious, a con-
troversy arose between the President and the majority of the
trustees, resulting in a bewildering series of charges and counter-
charges. The grave question as to who should preach in the

1 This charter is printed in full in Chase's A History of Dartmouth College and the
Town of Hanover, Vol. I, Appendix A.

DANIEL WEBSTER

village church kept the townspeople, the faculty, and the
trustees in a turmoil Wheelock, a Presbyterian, succeeded in
arraying other religious denominations against his opponents,
who were, for the most part, Congregationalists. Although he
had originally been a Federalist, Wheelock managed to rally
around him most of the Antifederalists and Republicans ; while
the trustees had the support of the Federalists and conserva-
tives. The President angered the trustees by requesting the
New Hampshire Legislature to appoint a committee for in-
vestigating the conduct of the college; and in May 1815 he
published an anonymous pamphlet, Sketches of the History of
Dartmouth College and Moor's Chanty School, in which he
assailed the trustees and perpetrated what was later described
by them as a <c gross and unprovoked libel." The dispute
culminated on August 26, 1815, when the trustees removed
Wheelock from office and elected the Reverend Francis Brown,
of Yarmouth, Maine, as his successor. By this time the con-
troversy had attracted widespread attention, and the Patriot
was filled with the details. Its Republican editor, Isaac Hill,
of course, took Wheelock's part.

For the moment, the trustees, by their prompt and vigorous
action, had the better of the quarrel; but it was now to be
carried into the realm of state politics. In March 1816, the
Federalists, after holding control in New Hampshire throughout
the war, were turned out, and William Plumer, a convert to
Republicanism, was elected Governor, with a party majority
in both branches of the Legislature. Dartmouth College had
now become the innocent victim of partisan disputes. The
trustees, warned of danger, did their utmost to avert trouble ;
but Governor Plumer, in his inaugural speech, announced that
the college charter contained principles "hostile to the spirit
and genius of a free government/' and demanded action. 1

1 Governor Plumer's Message was read on June 6, 1816. Later he sent a copy to
Thomas Jefferson, who replied, July 21, 1816, saying that it was " replete with sound
principles, and truly Republican." Commenting on what Plumer had said with regard
to Dartm