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JOHN    ADAMS. 


5obn  Bbams  an6 
2>aniel  Mebeter 
as  Schoolmasters 


INTRODUCTION    BY    THE 
Hon.  CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS 


The  PALMER 
COMPANY 

5  o   Bromfield 
St.     Boston 


B^  JElt3abetb  {porter  (Boulb 

Hutbor  of  "Hnne  ©ilcbrist  ano  TKHalt  TOlbitman,"  "©cms  from  TKHalt 
1KHbftman,"    "poems:    Stra?  pebblee  from  tbe  Sborcs  of  Ubougbt  " 


El  311 

•^ 

'     THE  LIBRARY  OF 

CONGRESS. 

T«vo  Copies 

Received 

JUL 

1903 

;      Copyngnt 

Entry 

/u.^.  xiT 

-AT  £>3 

CLASS     °~ 

XXcNo. 

Ub 

«+  S 

COPY 

B, 

Copyright,   1903 

BY 

The   Palmer  Company. 


:/|:    ; 


First  Edition. 


IFntrofcuction 


OME  three  weeks  ago  a  Chapter  of  the 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution 
dedicated  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  a  tablet 
commemorative  of  the  site  of  the  original 
Worcester  schoolhouse,  —  the  site  upon 
which,  if  not  the  house  in  which,  John 
Adams  taught  immediately  after  his  graduation  from 
Harvard  College,  in  1755.  It  proved  an  occasion  of 
interest,  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  of  Clark  University, 
and  Senator  George  F.  Hoar  both  contributing  dis- 
criminating addresses  of  a  character  highly  suggestive. 
Among  the  most  interested  of  those  present  on  this 
occasion  was  Miss  Elizabeth  Porter  Gould,  who  sub- 
sequently called  my  attention  to  a  paper  she  had  prepared 
relating  to  the  experiences  of  John  Adams  during  his 
Worcester  school-teaching,  and  of  Daniel  Webster  during 
a  similar  experience  at  Fryeburg,  in  the  State  of  Maine. 
This  paper  she  asked  me  to  read  over,  and  I  have  since 
complied  with  her  request. 

Prepared  as  a  labor  of  love,  but  with  great  thor- 
oughness, I  found  that  Miss  Gould's  sketch  had  an 
unquestionable  interest  of  its  own.  The  youthful 
school-teaching  of  two  such  very  eminent  men  in  New 
England  history  as  John  Adams  and  Daniel  Webster 
could  not  but  well  repay  any  reasonable  amount  of 
investigation ;  and  that  given  to  it  by  Miss  Gould  has 
been  fruitful  of  results. 

It  is,  of  course,  much  to  be  regretted  that  both  John 
Adams  and  Daniel  Webster  should  not   have  put  on 


flntrotmctfon 


record  more  concerning  the  surroundings  and  condi- 
tions under  which  they  taught,  in  the  one  case  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half,  and  in  the  other  a  little  over  a  century 
ago.  Every  educational  condition  has  since  changed. 
When  the  two  men,  freshly  graduated  from  college, 
but  afterwards  so  famous,  presided  over  village  schools, 
those  schools  were  frequented  by  children  of  both  sexes 
and  all  ages.  The  offspring  of  the  vicinage  there  gath- 
ered. The  "three  R's,"  as  they  were  called,  only, 
were  taught;  but  from  the  alphabet  up  to  reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic,  the  whole  work  of  instruction 
devolved  on  the  single  teacher.  Schools  of  this  sort  are 
now  rarely  found,  and  only  in  the  most  remote  districts. 
Then,  and  indeed  down  to  a  time  within  the  easy  recol- 
lection of  those  now  living,  they  existed  everywhere. 
Unfortunately,  it  never  occurred  to  either  President 
Adams  or  Mr.  Webster  that  the  time  could  possibly 
come  when  the  commonplace,  every-day,  humdrum  ex- 
perience they  were  going  through  would  be  of  the 
deepest  interest  to  great  numbers  of  the  most  highly 
educated  men  and  women  of  the  succeeding  centuries, 
— men  and  women  who  make  a  life-long  profession  of 
what  was  to  those  others  a  temporary  bread-earning 
expedient.  All  that  the  most  thorough  investigation 
can  now  disclose  are  the  general  outlines  of  a  system 
then  universal,  but  which  has  since  ceased  to  exist. 

These  outlines  Miss  Gould  has  traced  with  indefati- 
gable patience.  Meanwhile,  studying  the  subsequent 
career  of  the  two  statesmen  in  the  light  of  her  narra- 
tive, it  might  afford  another  subject  of  curious  inquiry 


Ilntrobuction 


to  endeavor  to  portion  out  the  educational  advantage 
each  of  them  himself  derived  from  that  close  contact 
with  the  material  out  of  which  the  New  England  com- 
munity of  their  later  careers  was  composed,  as  compared 
with  the  degree  of  learning  it  was  given  them  to  impart 
to  others.  It  is  probably  not  unsafe  to  conclude  that 
the  balance  of  benefit  was  distinctly  and  largely  on  their 
side.     They  both  got  more  than  they  gave. 

Charles  Francis  Adams. 
Boston,  June  16,  1903. 


part  ©ne 


John  Hbams 

as  a 

Schoolmaster 


5obn  Hfcams 

CCORDING  to  an  ordinance  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts  in  1647  that 
a  town  of  fifty  householders  should  have 
a  school,  Worcester,  four  years  after  its 
incorporation  in  1722,  had  hired  its  first 
schoolmaster.  Five  years  later,  "whereas 
many  small  children  cannot  attend  ye  School  in  ye  centre 
of  ye  Town  by  Reason  of  ye  remoteness  of  their  Dwell- 
ings, and  to  ye  intent  that  all  Children  may  have  ye 
benefite  of  Education,"  the  town  voted  a  suitable 
number  of  "  schoole  Dames,"  or  "  Gentlewomen,  to  be 
placed  in  ye  Several  parts  of  ye  town  as  ye  Selectmen 
may  think  most  convenient." 

Upon  the  town's  increase  to  one  hundred  families  or 
householders,  a  grammar  school  according  to  law  became 
a  necessity  ;  and  in  1755  the  clergyman  of  the  town,  Rev. 
Thaddeus  Maccarty,  was  empowered  by  the  selectmen 
to  provide  a  schoolmaster.  Naturally  turning  to  Har- 
vard College,  at  the  commencement  exercises  of  that 
year  he  was  especially  impressed  with  one  of  the  gradu- 
ates, John  Adams,  of  Braintree,  Mass.  The  good 
scholarship,  bold  thought,  strong  language  and  evident 
sincerity  of  the  young  man,  not  quite  twenty  years  of 
age,  seemed  to  him  a  good  recommendation  for  the 
teaching  career.  His  standing  in  social  life  was  learned 
from  the  fact  that  he  was  number  fourteen  in  a  class  of 
twenty-four ;  for  pupils  were  then  placed  in  the  order 
of  the  supposed  rank  or  dignity  of  parents,  the  alpha- 
betical order  in  their  names  and  places  not  being  in  use 
■until  nearly  twenty  years  later. 


io  3obn  Hfcams 

Before  the  return  of  the  clergyman  John  Adams  was 
engaged  to  teach  the  school.  Three  weeks  later  a  horse 
and  an  attendant  were  sent  from  Worcester  to  Braintree 
to  take  him  to  the  new  field  of  labor.  He  was  then 
living  with  his  parents  on  the  Adams  farm,  his  birth- 
place.  The  old  house  is  now  (1903)  the  headquarters 
of  the  Adams  Chapter  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Revo- 
lution,— Mrs.  Nelson  V.  Titus,  Regent, — through  whose 
efforts  it  was  restored  in  1897. 

Among  his  friends  was  John  Hancock,  also  a  native 
of  Quincy,  who,  then  about  eighteen  years  of  ager 
had  graduated  from  Harvard  College  the  year  before. 
Dorothy  Q.  was  still  alive  in  the  old  Quincy  mansion 
on  Hancock  Street  we  visit  to-day ;  and  living  with  her 
was  her  niece,  Dorothy  Quincy,  who  afterwards  became 
the  wife  of  John  Hancock.  Abigail  Smith,  whose 
home  was  in  the  neighboring  town  of  Weymouth,  was 
often  a  guest  with  relatives  in  Quincy.  But  John 
Adams  left  all  these  associations  to  go  away  to  teach 
school. 

Worcester  at  that  time,  with  its  fifteen  hundred  inhab- 
itants, was  not  what  it  was  even  at  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury. Twenty-eight  years  were  to  elapse  before  the 
running  of  the  first  regular  stage  from  Boston  to 
Worcester,  and  nearly  twenty  before  even  the  stage 
should  pass  through  the  town  from  Boston  to  New 
York.  Many  more  years  were  to  pass  before  the  first 
passenger  train  should  run  over  the  Boston  and  Worcester 
railroad. 

Upon  arriving  in  the  town  John  Adams  went  to  board,. 


as  a  Scbooimaster  u 

at  the  town's  expense,  at  Major  Nathaniel  Greene's,  who 
had  been  one  of  the  three  to  carry  into  effect  the  town 
vote  to  maintain  a  grammar  school.  Private  subscrip- 
tions of  Hon.  James  Putnam,  Judge  John  Chandler  and 
other  prominent  citizens  of  the  town  aided  in  the  work. 
The  little  schoolhouse — sixteen  by  twenty-four  feet — to 
which  he  came  stood  in  what  is  now  Lincoln  Square, 
having  been  built  some  seventeen  years  before,  1738,  as 
the  first  schoolhouse  of  Worcester.  The  salary  could  not 
have  been  large,  for  the  sum  appropriated  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  schools  was  only  seventy-five  pounds,  having 
been  that  year  increased  from  sixty  pounds. 

Thus,  as  the  town  schoolmaster,  this  brave  young 
man  of  nearly  twenty  began  his  work.  It  was  not  long 
before  he  was  writing  a  promised  account  of  the  "  situa- 
tion of  his  mind."  But  the  "  natural  state  of  his  facul- 
ties being  insufficient  for  the  task,"  he  felt  obliged  to 
invoke  the  "muse  or  goddess  who  inspired  Milton's 
pen"  to  help  him  "  sing  things  unattempted  yet  in  prose 
or  rhyme."  The  result  of  this  in  a  letter  to  his  college 
friend,  Richard  Cranch,  dated  Sept.  2,  1755,  is  as 
interesting  to-day  as  when  it  was  written,  for  it  reveals 
a  poetic  tendency  of  the  man  which  later  circumstances 
did  not  tend  to  develop. 

When  the  nimble  hours  have  tackled  Apollo's  coursers,  and 
the  gay  deity  mounts  the  eastern  sky,  the  gloomy  pedagogue 
arises,  frowning  and  lowering  like  a  black  cloud  begrimmed 
with  uncommon  wrath  to  blast  a  devoted  land.  When  the 
destined  time  arrives  he  enters  upon  action,  and  as  a  haughty 
monarch  ascends  his  throne,  the  pedagogue  mounts  his  awful 
great  chair,  and  dispenses  right  and  justice  through  his  whole 


i2  3obn  Hfcams 

empire.  His  obsequious  subjects  execute  the  imperial  mandates 
with  cheerfulness,  and  think  it  their  high  happiness  to  be 
employed  in  the  service  of  the  emperor.  Sometimes  paper, 
sometimes  his  penknife,  now  birch,  now  arithmetic,  now  a 
ferule,  then  A,  B,  C,  then  scolding,  then  flattering,  then 
thwacking,  calls  for  the  pedagogue's  attention.  At  length, 
his  spirits  all  exhausted,  down  comes  pedagogue  from  his 
throne,  and  walks  out  in  awful  solemnity  through  a  cringing 
multitude.  In  the  afternoon  he  passes  through  the  same  dread- 
ful scenes,  smokes  his  pipe,  and  goes  to  bed.     Exit  muse. 

Considerable  uneasiness  was  manifest  in  the  beginning 
of  this  school  experience.  John  Adams  craved  a  larger 
sphere.  The  large  number  of  "  little  runtlings,  just 
capable  of  lisping  A,  B,  C,  and  troubling  the  master," 
made  the  school  to  him  a  "school  of  affliction."  In 
spite  of  Dr.  Savil  telling  him  for  his  comfort  that  by 
"  cultivating  and  pruning  these  tender  plants  in  the 
garden  of  Worcester"  he  would  make  some  of  them 
44  plants  of  renown  and  cedars  of  Lebanon,"  he  was 
certain  that  keeping  it  any  length  of  time  would  make 
a  "  base  weed  and  ignoble  shrub  "  of  him. 

There  was  for  him  comparatively  little  knowledge  of 
the  outside  world,  since  it  was  twenty  years  before  the 
Massachusetts  Spy,  the  first  publication  in  Worcester, 
was  published,  and  seventy  before  a  daily  paper  was 
issued  there.  In  this  lonely  life  among  strangers  the 
new  school-teacher  turned  to  the  friends  who  had 
cheered  his  college  days,  particularly  to  Charles  Cush- 
ing  and  Richard  Cranch.  Absence  from  them  pained 
his  heart  while  his  philosophical  mind  cried,  "  But 
thus  it  is,  and  I  must  submit."     At  one  time  he  longed 


as  a  Schoolmaster  13 

for  a  letter  from  Richard  Cranch  "  to  balance  the  in- 
quietude of  school  keeping."  "  Pray  write  me  the  first 
time-  you  are  at  leisure/'  he  implored.  He  requested 
him  to  see  his  friend  Quincy, — the  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy, 
who  afterwards  bought  and  lived  in  the  Hancock  house 
in  Quincy, — "  and  conjure  him,  by  all  the  muses,"  to 
write  him  a  letter.  "  Tell  him  that  all  the  conversation 
I  have  had  since  I  left  Braintree  is  dry  disputes  upon 
politics  and  rural  obscene  wit.  That,  therefore,  a  letter 
written  with  that  elegance  of  style  and  delicacy  of 
humor  which  characterize  all  his  performances  would 
come  recommended  with  the  additional  charm  of  rarity, 
and  contribute  more  than  anything  (except  one  from 
you)  towards  making  a  happy  being  of  me  once  more." 

All  correspondence  was  effected  with  difficulties,  since 
it  was  twenty  years  before  the  establishment  of  a  post 
office  in  Worcester.  But,  after  all,  this  new  life,  instead 
of  suppressing,  stimulated  his  native  energies.  This  is 
seen  in  the  prophetic  thought  of  a  letter  written  after  he 
had  been  in  Worcester  about  six  weeks  to  his  friend  and 
kinsman,  Nathan  Webb,  beginning  thus:  "All  that 
part  of  creation  which  lies  within  our  observation  is 
liable  to  change.  Even  mighty  states  and  kingdoms 
are  not  exempted." 

It  was  evident  that  he  was  moved  by  the  existing  state 
of  affairs.  George  II  was  then  King  of  England,  and 
Shirley,  as  Governor,  was  leading  the  Massachusetts 
Colony  under  its  second  charter.  George  Washington, 
then  a  young  man  of  twenty-three,  had  made  himself 
felt  in  the  war  against  the  French  and  Indians.     This 


H  3obn  H&ams 

was  the  year  of  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Nova 
Scotia  and  of  Braddock's  defeat.  Louisburg  had  been 
taken.  Regimental  headquarters  were  at  Worcester, 
causing  tents  to  whiten  the  surrounding  country.  "  Be 
not  surprised,"  wrote  the  young  schoolmaster,  "that  I 
am  turned  politician.  This  whole  town  is  immersed  in 
politics.  The  interests  of  nations  and  of  the  dira  of 
war  make  the  subject  of  every  conversation.  I  sit  and 
hear,  and  after  having  been  led  through  a  maze  of  sage 
observations,  I  sometimes  retire,  and  by  laying  things 
together,  form  some  reflections  pleasing  to  myself." 

In  this  letter  he  showed  a  clear  perception  of  the  na- 
ture of  friendship,  which  he  calls  "one  of  the  distin- 
guishing glories  of  man,"  when  he  declared,  "In  this, 
perhaps,  we  bear  a  nearer  resemblance  to  unembodied 
intelligence  than  to  anything  else.  From  this  I  expect 
to  receive  the  chief  happiness  of  my  future  life." 

His  capacity  for  friendship  was  somewhat  satisfied  in 
the  Worcester  people,  whom  he  soon  found  to  be  "so- 
ciable, generous,  and  hospitable."  He  often  dined, 
drank  tea,  or  spent  an  evening  with  Major  Chandler, 
Major  Gardiner,  Mr.  Welman,  and  others.  One  even- 
ing he  was  discussing  with  Major  Greene  the  "divinity 
and  satisfaction  of  Jesus  Christ"  ;  another,  he  was  won- 
dering with  Major  Gardiner  whether  it  was  not  the 
design  of  Christianity  to  make  "good  men,  good  mag- 
istrates, good  subjects,  good  children,  good  masters, 
and  good  servants,"  rather  than  "good  riddle-mongers 
and  mystery-mongers"  ;  another  time  he  was  making 
observations   with   his  friends  concerning  the    "prodi- 


as  a  Schoolmaster  15 

gious  genius,  cultivated  with  prodigious  industry,"  of 
Mr.  Franklin, — then  about  fifty  years  of  age, — who  was 
coming  back  from  Europe  with  a  reputation  enlarged 
on  account  of  electrical  experiments.  He  doubtless  was 
familiar  with  the  sayings  of  Poor  Richard  in  the 
almanacks  then  making  their  appearance.  He  may 
have  discussed  them  with  his  first  Worcester  friend,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Maccarty,  as  they  supped  together.  Doubt- 
less they  discussed  Jonathan  Edwards  as  preacher  at 
Northampton,  or  as  president  of  Princeton  College. 
One  wonders  if  they  even  heard  of  the  name  of  Swe- 
denborg,  then  coming  before  the  world  with  his  writ- 
ings ;  or  of  Handel,  then  old  and  blind ;  or  of  Bach, 
who  had  died  only  a  few  years  before.  Had  Pope's 
new  edition  of  Shakespeare  reached  them?  or  his 
translation  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey?  It  is  possible 
they  knew  of  Dryden's  metrical  translation  of  Virgil. 
But  whether  or  not  they  discussed  these  classics,  we  do 
know  they  dwelt  on  religious  subjects ;  that  the  young 
teacher  revealed  the  same  line  of  thought  that  was  seen 
in  a  letter  he  wrote  in  his  old  age,  at  eighty-five,  to 
Prof.  John  Gorham  when  he  said,  "I  believe  with 
Father  Abraham  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton  in  the  existence 
of  spirit  distinct  from  matter,  and  resign  to  the  Uni- 
versal Spirit  the  government  of  his  heavens  and  earth." 
In  spite,  however,  of  growing  convictions  on  religious 
subjects,  the  young  schoolmaster  attended  Mr.  Mac- 
carty's  church,  the  only  one  in  town;  for  it  was  not 
until  after  the  death  of  this  minister,  in  1784,  that  an- 
other   church — the    Unitarian — was    organized.     Years 


16  3obn  Bbame 

afterwards  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Aaron  Bancroft,  its  pastor  for 
over  fifty  years,  John  Adams,  in  referring  to  the  old 
days,  said:  "Mr.  Maccarty,  though  a  Calvinist,  was 
not  a  bigot ;  but  the  town  was  a  scene  of  dispute  all  the 
time  I  lived  there.  When  I  left  I  entered  into  a  scene 
of  other  disputations  at  the  bar,  and  not  long  afterwards 
disputations  of  another  kind  in  politics."  So  he  felt  he 
had  had  his  share  of  controversy.  But,  after  all,  he  de- 
clared, upon  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  Dr.  Ban- 
croft's sermons,  that  they  were  most  satisfactory  in 
expressing  the  result  of  his  "reading,  experience,  and 
reflection."  "How  different,"  he  concluded,  "from 
the  sermons  I  heard  and  read  in  the  town  of  Worcester 
from  1755  to  1758." 

Although  Mr.  Maccarty' s  successful  ministry  of  thirty- 
seven  years  in  Worcester  was  effective  and  appreciated 
by  the  people,  yet  human  nature  was  such  that  while  he 
was  there  a  warrant  for  town  meeting  was  announced, 
"  For  ye  Town  to  Come  into  Some  method  that  People 
may  sit  in  ye  Seats  (in  the  meeting-house)  assigned  to 
prevent  disorders,  and  that  they  don't  put  themselves 
too  forward." 

In  Worcester,  as  in  college,  John  Adams  lived  up  to 
his  determination  to  sow  no  wild  oats.  The  thought  of 
marriage  then,  as  ever  before,  was,  according  to  his 
own  confession,  a  stimulant  to  make  himself  worthy  of 
the  finest  woman  the  world  could  offer  him.  And  those 
who  know  the  story  of  his  wedded  life  of  fifty-four 
years  with  Abigail  Smith,  of  Weymouth,  know  that 
he  was  fully  rewarded  for  his  determination. 


as  a  Schoolmaster  17 

Some  of  the  schoolmaster's  observations  concerning 
the  affairs  at  friendly  gatherings  must  have  been  scattered 
among  the  people.     In   a   letter  written   to    his  friend 
dishing   in   April,    1756,    he   said,   "There  is   a   story 
about  town  that  I  am  an  Arminian."     This,  however, 
did    not   trouble  him,   for   he   then,   as    later,    believed 
in  a  free  discussion  of  all  subjects.     Meanwhile  he  suc- 
ceeded in  his  school  work,  and  became  by  springtime 
quite  k' contented  in  the  place  of  a  schoolmaster. "     In 
the  diary  which  he  began  while  in  Worcester,  he  gives 
us  a  pleasant  picture  of    his   school  at  this  time.     He 
invokes    no    muse,    however,    but   trusts  to  the  natural 
strength  of  his  faculties,  which  it  will  be  remembered 
he  dared  not  do  before.     "  I  sometimes,  in  my  sprightly 
moments,   consider  myself  in  my  great  chair  at  school 
as  some  dictator  at  the  head  of  a  commonwealth.     In 
this  little  state  I  can  discover  all  the  geniuses,  all  the 
surprising  actions  and  revolutions  of  the  great  world  in 
miniature.     I  have  several  renowned  generals  but  three 
feet    high,  and  several  deep,  projecting    politicians    in 
petticoats.     I  have  others  catching  and  dissecting  flies, 
accumulating  remarkable  pebbles,   cockle    shells,    etc., 
with  as  ardent  curiosity  as  any  virtuoso  in    the  Royal 
Society.     Some  rattle  and  thunder  out  A,  B,  C,  with  as 
much  fire  and    impetuosity  as   Alexander    fought,  and 
very  often  sit  down  and  cry  as  heartily  upon  being  out- 
spelt  as  Cassar  did  when  at  Alexander's   sepulchre  he 
recollected  that  the  Macedonian  hero  had  conquered  the 
world  before  his  age.     At  one  table  sits  Mr.  Insipid, 
foppling  and  fluttering,  spinning  his  whirligig,  or  play- 


is  3obn  Hbams 

ing  with  his  fingers  as  gaily  and  wittily  as  any  Frenchi- 
fied coxcomb  brandishes  his  cane  or  rattles  his  snuff- 
box. At  another  sits  the  polemical  divine,  plodding 
and  wrangling  in  his  mind  about  '  Adam's  fall,  in  which 
we  sinned  all,'  as  his  Primer  has  it.  In  short,  my  little 
school,  like  the  great  world,  is  made  up  of  prigs,  poli- 
ticians, divines,  LL.D's,  fops,  buffoons,  fiddlers,  syco- 
phants, fools,  coxcombs,  chimney  sweepers,  and  every 
other  character  drawn  in  history,  or  seen  in  the  world." 
He  revealed  the  secret  of  his  success  as  a  teacher  when 
he  asked  if  it  is  not  the  "  highest  pleasure  to  preside  in 
this  little  world,  to  bestow  the  proper  applause  upon 
virtuous  and  generous  actions,  to  blame  and  punish 
every  vicious  and  contracted  trick,  to  wear  out  of  the 
tender  mind  everything  that  is  mean  or  little,  and  fire 
the  new-born  soul  with  a  noble  ardor  and  emulation. 
The  world  affords  no  greater  pleasure."  He  found  by 
repeated  experiment  and  observation  in  his  school,  that 
human  nature  was  more  easily  wrought  upon  and 
governed  by  "promises,  encouragement,  and  praise, 
than  by  punishment,  threatening,  and  blame."  He 
was,  however,  cautious  and  sparing  of  praise,  "  lest  it 
become  too  familiar  and  cheap,  and  so  contemptible." 
He  observed  that  "corporal  as  well  as  disgraceful 
punishments"  depressed  the  spirits,  while  "commen- 
dation enlivened  and  stimulated  them  to  a  noble  ardor 
and  emulation." 

Outside  of  school  hours,  when  not  with  his  friends, 
he  was  absorbed  in  reading  and  study.  His  mind  dwelt 
much  upon  "religious  themes  and  miracles."      When 


as  a  Scbooimaeter  19 

he  first  went  to  Worcester  he  was  inclined  to  the  minis- 
terial profession.  To  this  end  he  copied  large  extracts 
from  the  works  of  Tillotson  and  others.  One  morning 
he  rose  at  half  past  four  and  wrote  Boli?igbroke's  Let- 
ter on  retirement  and  duty  ;  another  time  he  wrote  his 
Reflections  on  Exile.  A  volume  still  remains  in  a 
very  minute  hand  filled  with  passages  from  the  works 
of  various  authors.  But  how  limited  the  reading  matter 
compared  to  that  of  to-day !  Walter  Scott,  Jane  Aus- 
ten, Thackeray,  Byron,  Shelley,  Keats,  Wordsworth, 
Carlyle,  Tennyson,  the  Brownings,  Emerson,  Whitman, 
and  a  host  of  modern  poets  were  not  born.  Goethe  was 
only  a  child.  But  there  was  Milton,  with  whom  he  was 
greatly  impressed  ;  and  there  was  Addison,  with  whom 
he  was  charmed.  He  had  Shakespeare,  and,  best  of  all, 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  he  studied  for  their  literary 
as  well  as  spiritual  value.  His  aspiration  of  soul  indi- 
cates unusual  moral  attainment  for  so  young  a  man. 
"  Oh,"  he  cries,  in  a  moment  of  self-examination, 
4 'that  I  could  wear  out  of  my  mind  every  mean  and 
base  affection ;  conquer  my  natural  pride  and  self- 
conceit ;  expect  no  more  deference  from  my  fellows 
than  I  deserve ;  acquire  that  meekness  and  humility 
which  are  the  sure  mark  and  character  of  a  great  and 
generous  soul ;  subdue  every  unworthy  passion,  and 
treat  all  men  as  I  wish  to  be  treated  by  all !  How  happy 
should  I  then  be  in  the  favor  and  good  will  of  all  honest 
men  and  the  sure  prospect  of  a  happy  immortality !  " 

Like  all  noble,  sensitive  natures,  he  had  his   moments 
of    discouragement.     One   time,   alone  in  his    chamber 


2o  3obn  H&ame 

after  the  day's  teaching,  longing  for  knowledge,  he  wrote 
in  his  diary,  "  But  I  have  no  books,  no  time,  no  friends  ; 
I  must  therefore  be  contented  to  live  and  die  an  ignorant, 
obscure  fellow." 

Possessing,  however^ what  he  esteemed  the  essential 
marks  of  a  good  mind, — "honesty,  sincerity  and  open- 
ness,"— he  overcame  such  moods,  and  read  all  the  books 
that  came  in  his  way.  He  also  found  time  for  social 
enjoyment.  When  at  Major  Greene's  he  came  across 
Morgan" s  Moral  Philosopher,  which  he  found  was 
being  circulated  with  some  freedom  in  the  town.  In  the 
library  of  Dr.  Nahun  Willard,  at  whose  house  he  went 
to  board  after  leaving  Major  Greene's,  he  found  Dr. 
Cheyne's  works,  Sydenham  and  others,  and  Van  Swie- 
ten's  Commentaries  on  Boerhaave.  This  general  read- 
ing, as  well  as  the  reputation  and  skill  of  Dr.  Willard, 
suggested  the  thought  of  his  being  a  physician  and  sur- 
geon. But  on  attending  the  courts  of  justice  and  hear- 
ing Worthington,  Hawley,  Trowbridge,  Putnam  and 
others,  he  was  drawn  more  strongly  to  the  study  of  law. 
This  desire  grew  more  and  more  upon  him,  especially 
since  he  could  not  conquer  his  serious  objections  to  the 
profession  of  the  ministry.  He  finally  went  to  talk  the 
matter  over  with  Mr.  James  Putnam.  The  result  was  a 
contract  to  study  law  with  him  for  two  years.  He 
agreed  to  the  proposal  to  board  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Put- 
nam at  the  rate  the  town  allowed  for  his  lodgings.  He 
also  agreed  to  pay  Mr.  Putnam  one  hundred  dollars 
when  he  should  find  it  convenient.  This  plan  involved 
keeping  the  school  two  years  longer  to  pay  expenses  ;  for 


as  a  Scboolmaster  21 

he  had  taken  up  teaching  in  the  first  place  not  so  much 
from  choice,  as  from  a  desire  to  lighten  the  pecuniary 
burden  his  education  had  laid  upon  his  father.  "It 
will  be  hard  work,"  he  wrote  his  friend  Cranch  within 
a  week  after  the  contract,  "  but  the  more  dangerous  and 
difficult  the  enterprise,  a  brighter  crown  of  laurel  is 
bestowed  upon  the  conquerer."  His  decision  to  take 
up  the  legal  profession  was  not  approved  by  his  friends 
Cranch  and  Cushing.  The  former  even  advised  him  to 
reconsider  his  resolution  and  take  up  the  ministry.  His 
father's  general  expectation  was  for  him  to  be  a  divine. 
His  mother,  although  a  religious  woman,  had  no  special 
desire  for  him  in  that  direction.  His  uncles  and  rela- 
tives were  bitterly  prejudiced  against  the  law,  as  was 
public  sentiment  at  that  time.  But  John  Adams  had 
made  up  his  mind.  He  went  at  once  to  work  in  Mr. 
Putnam's  office  with  the  firm  resolution  "  never  to  com- 
mit any  meanness  or  injustice  in  the  practice  of  law," 
and  to  endeavor  to  "  oblige  and  please  everybody,  but  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Putnam  in  particular."  In  his  diary  for  Au- 
gust 22,  1756,  he  said  of  this  important  move  in  his  life  : 
"Necessity  drove  me  to  this  determination,  but  my  in- 
clination, I  think,  was  to  preach.  However,  that  would 
not  do.  The  study  and  practise  of  law,  I  am  sure,  does 
not  dissolve  the  obligations  of  morality  or  of  religion. 
And  although  the  reason  of  my  quitting  divinity  was 
my  opinion  concerning  some  disputed  points,  I  hope  I 
shall  not  give  reason  of  offense  to  any  in  that  profession 
by  imprudent  warmth."  A  month  before  writing  this 
he  had  begun  his  second  year  at  school.     In  order  that 


22  3obn  Hfcams 

he  might  not  lose  any  time,  and  do  more  than  the  year 
before,  he  had  resolved  then  to  rise  with  the  sun  and  to 
study  the  Scriptures  on  Thursday,  Friday,  Saturday  and 
Sunday  mornings,  and  to  study  some  Latin  author  the 
other  three  mornings.  Noons  and  nights  he  intended  to 
read  English  authors.  This  resolution  was  crowned 
with  a  determination  to  "stand  collected' '  within  him- 
self, and  to  "  think  upon  what  he  read  and  saw."  The 
very  day  after  he  wrote  this  resolution  in  his  diary  it  so 
happened  that  it  was  seven  o'clock  when  he  arose  in- 
stead of  sunrise.  This  for  a  July  morning  seemed  inex- 
cusable. But  he  grimly  said,  "This  is  the  usual  fate  of 
my  resolutions." 

During  the  succeeding  two  years,  in  which  six  hours 
a  day  were  devoted  to  school  work,  John  Adams  made 
good  use  of  Mr.  Putnam's  library,  particularly  the 
"handsome  addition  of  law  books"  and  the  works  of 
Lord  Bacon,  which  Mr.  Putnam  had  sent  to  England 
for  immediately  after  receiving  into  his  office  the  new 
student.  Upon  his  adding  later  Bolingbroke's  works, 
as  a  result  of  reading  the  Study  and  Use  of  History 
and  his  Patriot  King,  which  the  schoolmaster  had 
brought  from  his  Braintree  home,  an  opportunity  was 
given  to  read  the  posthumous  works  of  that  writer  in 
five  volumes.  Mr.  Burke  once  asked  who  ever  read 
Bolingbroke  through.  John  Adams  read  him  through 
then,  and  at  least  twice  after  that.  But  he  confessed 
that  he  did  it  without  much  good  or  harm.  He  con- 
sidered his  ideas  of  the  English  Constitution  correct,  and 
his  political  writings  worth  something,  "  although  there 


as  a  Schoolmaster  23 

was  more  of  fiction  than  of  truth."  He  thought  his 
style  original,  "  resembling  more  the  oratory  of  the 
ancients  than  any  writings  or  speeches  he  ever  read  in 
English,"  but  his  religion  was  a  "pompous  folly,  his 
abuse  of  the  Christian  religion  as  superficial  as  it  was 
impious." 

Among  the  multitudes  of  law  books  which  John 
Adams  read  while  teaching  school  in  Worcester  were 
Wood,  Coke,  two  volumes  of  Lime's  Abridgment,  two 
volumes  of  Salkeld's  Reports,  Swinburne,  Hawkins' 
Pleas  of  the  Crown,  JFortescue,  Fitzgibbon,  ten  vol- 
umes in  folio,  besides  octavos  and  lesser  volumes,  and 
many  of  all  sizes  that  he  consulted  occasionally  without 
special  study. 

But  law  was  not  always  the  subject  of  conversation. 
At  breakfast,  dinner  and  tea  Mr.  Putnam  was  commonly 
disputing  with  him  upon  some  question  of  religion. 
Although  he  would  agree  to  the  extent  of  his  learning 
and  ingenuity  to  destroy  or  invalidate  the  evidences  of 
a  future  state  and  the  principles  of  a  natural  and  revealed 
religion,  yet  he  could  not  convince  himself  that  death 
was  an  endless  sleep.  An  earnest  spirit  ever  pervaded 
his  discussions  as  well  as  his  actions.  He  wrote  friend 
Cushing  while  there:  "Upon  the  stage  of  life  while 
conscience  claps  let  the  world  hiss.  On  the  contrary, 
if  conscience  disapproves,  the  loudest  applauses  of  the 
world  are  of  little  value." 

Colonel  Putnam  and  his  pupil  often  conversed  on 
other  subjects  as  they  walked  around  the  farm  or  went 
shooting    together.     In    all    his    life    in    Worcester   the 


24  3obn  H&ams 

young  schoolmaster  found  time  to  commune  with  Nature. 
He  took  great  pleasure  in  "  viewing  and  examining  the 
magnificent  prospects  of  Nature"  that  lay  before  him 
in  the  town.  One  lovely  May  day  he  "  rambled  about 
all  day,  gaping  and  gazing."  He  enjoyed  the  country 
drives  to  Braintree  and  back  which  his  vacation  visits 
afforded.  He  looked  a  little  into  agriculture  and  horti- 
culture, in  which  in  his  last  years  he  showed  his  con- 
tinued interest  by  writing  a  bookseller,  Joseph  Milligan, 
on  receiving  a  book  on  gardening,  that  he  hoped  he 
was  not  mistaken  in  his  countrymen  if  they  did  not 
"  carry  the  science  and  practice  to  greater  perfection 
than  there  ever  had  been  since  this  globe  sprang  out 
of  nothing."  He  longed  to  assist  in  the  work,  but 
"  Nature  is  exhausted  and  the  lamp  quivers." 

The  sessions  of  the  Superior  Court  at  Worcester 
brought  to  Colonel  Putnam's  office  men  whom  John 
Adams  delighted  to  meet.  Here  began  the  friendship 
with  Jonathan  Sewall,  subsequently  shadowed  by  the 
different  sides  they  took  in  the  Revolution  of  Independ- 
ence. Years  after,  in  spite  of  the  broken  friendship, 
Jonathan  Sewall  said  of  his  old  friend:  "He  has  a 
heart  formed  for  friendship,  and  susceptible  of  its  finest 
feelings.  He  is  humane,  generous  and  open ;  warm 
in  his  friendly  attachments,  though,  perhaps,  rather 
implacable  to  those  whom  he  thinks  his  enemies." 

When  John  Adams'  studies  with  Mr.  Putnam  were 
over,  he  was  sworn  as  an  attorney  in  the  Superior  Court 
in  Boston,  at  the  recommendation  of  the  lawyer,  Jeremy 
Grid  ley,    then    the    attorney-general    of    the    province. 


as  a  Schoolmaster  25 

The  Worcester  people  having  recognized  the  natural 
ability  and  scholarship  of  their  successful  school-teacher 
for  three  years,  invited  him  to  settle  in  their  town.  But, 
•desiring  a  change  for  his  health,  he  accepted  his  parents' 
invitation  to  live  with  them  at  the  old  home  in  Brain- 
tree,  now  Quincy.  His  father,  the  great-grandson  of 
John  and  Priscilla  Alden,  of  Mayflower  fame,  whose 
name  for  nearly  forty  years  regularly  appeared  in  the 
town  records,  died  after  he  had  been  home  two  years. 
But  he  remained  with  his  mother  and  his  two  younger 
brothers  until  his  marriage  in  1764.  Then  he  went  to 
live  in  the  adjoining  house, — now  the  home  of  the  Quincy 
Historical  Society, — where  his  son  John  Quincy  was 
born. 

In  these  waiting,  wondering  years  he  wrote  in  his 
journal  :  "Let  no  trifling  diversion  or  amusement  or  com- 
pany decoy  you  from  your  books ;  i.  e.,  no  girl,  no  gun, 
no  cards,  no  flutes,  no  violins,  no  dress,  no  tobacco,  no 
laziness.  Labor  to  get  distinct  ideas  of  law,  right, 
wrong,  justice,  equity ;  search  for  them  in  your  own 
mind,  in  Roman,  Grecian,  French,  English  treatises  of 
natural,  civil,  common,  statute  law.  Aim  at  the  exact 
knowledge  of  the  nature,  end,  and  means  of  govern- 
ment." 

In  these  growing  years  he  did  not  forget  his  Worcester 
friends.  In  less  than  a  year  after  he  left  the  place  he 
was  spending  a  week  in  the  town,  dining  and  drinking 
tea  as  of  old  with  Colonel  Chandler,  Doctor  Willard, 
Major  Gardiner,  Colonel  Putnam,  and  others.  He 
occasionally  attended    Superior  Court  there,   when    he 


26  3obn  a&ame 

would  visit  the  office  where  he  "formerly  trimmed  the 
midnight  lamp." 

Thirteen  years  after  he  had  lived  there,  while  spend- 
ing a  day  with  Mr.  Putnam,  he  found  the  "  pleasure  of 
revisiting  old  haunts  very  great."  He  saw  little  altera- 
tion in  Dr.  Willard  or  his  wife.  His  sons  were  grown 
up.  He  met  Colonel  Chandler  and  other  old  friends. 
Doubtless  he  was  interested  to  see  the  second  school- 
house  built  in  the  center  of  the  town  some  seven  years 
after  he  had  taught  there.  He  went  to  church  and  saw 
"many  faces  altered,  and  many  new  faces."  He  was 
especially  pleased  to  meet  many  young  gentlemen  who 
had  been  Latin  pupils  in  his  school, — "John  Chandler, 
Esq.,  of  Petersham;  Rufus  Chandler,  the  lawyer;  Dr. 
William  Paine,  who  studied  physic  with  Dr.  Holyoke, 
of  Salem  ;  Nat.  Chandler,  who  was  studying  law  with 
Mr.  Putnam,  and  Dr.  Thaddeus  Maccarty,  a  physician 
at  Dudley."  Would  that  this  diary  had  also  preserved 
some  of  the  interesting  reminiscences  of  teacher  and 
pupils  which  that  day  must  have  heard  ! 

In  1795,  forty  years  after  John  Adams  had  entered 
Worcester  as  its  unknown  schoolmaster,  he  visited  the 
town  as  Vice  President  of  the  United  States,  George 
Washington  being  President.  Though  now  crowned 
with  honor  and  fame,  the  heart  of  the  teacher,  seeking 
old  faces  and  old  scenes,  must,  for  the  moment  at  least, 
have  been  master.  Doubtless  he  missed  the  personal,, 
friendly  greeting  of  his  old  teacher-in-the-law,  the  Hon. 
James  Putnam,  who,  years  before,  had  gone  as  a  refu- 
gee to  Halifax,  to  become  later  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme- 


as  a  Scboolmaster  27 

Court  of  New  Brunswick.  Now  another  element  was 
in  the  air;  that  which  a  contemporary  saw,  who,  in 
writing  to  Jeremiah  Mason  later  of  the  visit  to  Boston, 
said:  "But  among  the  many  great  little  events  which 
agitate  this  puddle  called  Boston,  the  arrival  of  John 
Adams  is  one.  People  here  tell  me  it  is  wise  to  make 
my  rustic  bow  to  the  great  man." 

John  Adams  was  not  then  the  schoolmaster,  receiving 
the  homage  of  personal  friends;  he  was  the  "great 
man,"  receiving  the  "rustic  bow"  of  the  people.  One 
cannot  but  ask  which  was  the  dearer  to  the  honored 
statesman. 

If  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  know  the  fruits 
of  their  best  endeavor  on  the  earth,  that  of  the  noble 
statesman  must  have  rejoiced  at  the  recognition  of  the 
people  of  Worcester  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
after  his  life  among  them ;  for  on  a  beautiful  May  day 
of  1903,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Colonel  Timothy 
Bigelow  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, a  bronze  tablet  in  a  setting  of  Quincy  granite  was 
unveiled  on  Main  Street  between  the  Court  House  and 
the  Antiquarian  Hall,  on  the  site  of  the  first  schoolhouse. 
The  Hon.  Stephen  Salisbury,  and  others  prominent  in 
city  and  state,  honored  the  occasion.  Mrs.  Annie 
Russell  Marble,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  (consisting 
of  the  Vice-Regent,  Mrs.  William  T.  Forbes,  and 
others) ,  whose  researches  through  a  pamphlet  published 
by  the  Chapter  had  helped  to  positive  knowledge,  lifted 
the  Stars  and  Stripes,  assisted  by  Mr.  Ellery  B.  Crane, 
Librarian  of  the  Society  of  Antiquity.     The  great  crowd 


23  3obn  H&ams 

of  people  flanked  by  the  Worcester  Continental  Guards, 
and  led  by  the  singing  of  "  America, "  was  then  priv- 
ileged to  read  the  following  inscription  :  — 

IN  FRONT  OF  THIS  TABLET 

STOOD 

THE    FIRST    SCHOOLHOUSE 

IN   WORCESTER, 

WHERE 

JOHN   ADAMS, 

SECOND    PRESIDENT   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES, 

TAUGHT   i755~I758- 


PLACED    BY 

THE    COLONEL    TIMOTHY    BIGELOW    CHAPTER, 

I903. 

Preceding  the  unveiling  an  appropriate  ceremony  was 
held  in  the  adjoining  Unitarian  Church, — the  church 
bearing  a  tablet  to  the  memory  of  its  time-honored  pas- 
tor, Aaron  Bancroft,  the  friend  of  John  Adams.  Mrs. 
Daniel  Kent,  as  Regent  of  the  Chapter,  presided,  while 
state  and  national  officers  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution  paid  their  tribute.  Senator  George  F. 
Hoar,  Worcester's  "most  honored  and  best  loved  citi- 
zen," as  he  was  introduced,  made  an  effective  address, 
as  did  the  President  of  Clark  University,  G.  Stanley 
Hall.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  President  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society,  and  a  great-grandson  of 
John  Adams,  then  read  his  ancestor's  account  of  the 
little  school  from  the  original  diary  he  held  in  his  hand 
(now  printed  in  the  works  of  John  Adams,  Volume  II., 
page  9) ,  every  line  of  which  was  written  in  Worcester. 
Mr.  Adams  said  he  felt  the  manuscript  belonged  there. 


as  a  Schoolmaster  29 

A  reception  at  the  woman's  clubhouse  in  charge  of 
Mrs.  C.  C.  Baldwin,  closed  the  interesting  occasion. 

John  Adams'  three  years  of  school  teaching  left  a 
lasting  impression  on  his  mind  and  character.  When 
he  was  an  old  man  in  the  retirement  of  his  Quincy 
home,  looking  back  over  a  life  honored  even  with  the 
presidency  of  the  nation,  he  said  that  while  he  kept 
school  he  acquired  more  knowledge  of  human  nature 
than  while  he  was  "  at  the  bar,  in  the  world  of  politics, 
or  at  the  courts  of  Europe."  He  certainly  illustrated  a 
warm,  personal  feeling  at  this  time  in  a  letter  he  wrote, 
over  fifty  years  after  his  teacher  life,  to  Amos  J.  Cook, 
the  master  who  succeeded  Daniel  Webster  as  teacher  of 
the  Fryeburg  Academy  in  Maine.  After  thanking  him 
for  the  ''elegant  Translation  of  the  Spanish  Latin 
verses," — the  work  of  an  eighteen-year-old  pupil  which 
he  had  sent  him, — he  said,  "The  sense  and  spirit  of  that 
morsel  of  purer  morality  than  elegant  Latinity  is  very 
well  preserved  in  the  Translation  into  English  Rhyme, 
while  the  easy,  natural  air  of  an  original  Composition 
is  given  to  it."  He  declared  the  young  man  certainly 
deserved  "applause  and  encouragement."  He  was 
pleased  to  add  that  having  showed  the  translation  to 
his  "Brother  Cranch  and  to  the  Ladies  of  our  Fami- 
lies who  are  all  Lovers  of  Poetry,  and  some  of  them 
good  Judges,  they  all  applauded  the  Composition  as 
having  great  merit." 

While  in  this  retirement  John  Adams  was  surprised  to 
see  the  publication  of  his  youthful  Worcester  letters  to 
Charles  Cushing  in  a  Nantucket  newspaper.     Their  ap- 


30  3obn  H&ams 

pearance  was  to  him  a  "  riddle,  a  mystery  beyond  all 
comprehension."  Upon  receiving  an  explanation  and 
apology  from  the  son,  who  published  them,  the  old  pa- 
triot responded  that  while  they  had  afforded  some 
amusement  to  his  friends,  they  had  excited  some  tender 
reflections  in  himself.  "I  was  like  a  boy,"  he  wrote, 
"in  a  country  fair,  in  a  wilderness,  in  a  strange  country, 
with  half  a  dozen  roads  before  him,  groping  in  a  dark 
night  to  find  which  he  ought  to  take."  He  then  said 
that  had  he  been  obliged  to  tell  his  father  the  whole 
truth,  he  should  have  mentioned  several  other  pursuits, 
such  as  "farming,  merchandise,  law,  and,  above  all, 
war."  He  declared  that  "nothing  but  want  of  interest 
and  patronage"  prevented  him  from  enlisting  in  the 
army.  "Could  I  have  obtained  a  troop  of  horse," 
wrote  this  old  man  of  over  eighty,  "or  a  company  of 
foot,  I  should  infallibly  have  been  a  soldier.  It  is  a 
problem  in  my  mind  to  this  day  whether  I  should  have 
been  a  coward  or  a  hero." 

In  thinking  over  this  Worcester  life,  he  even  went  so 
far  as  to  advise  "  every  young  man  to  keep  school,"  for 
it  was  "the  best  method  of  acquiring  patience,  self- 
command,  and  a  knowledge  of  character." 

But  a  practical  result  of  school  work  on  John 
Adams  was  his  gift  to  his  native  town  of  land  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  there  a  "school  for  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages  and  any  other  lan- 
guages, arts  and  sciences,  which  a  majority  of  the 
ministers,  magistrates,  lawyers  and  physicians  inhabiting 
in  the  said  town  may  advise."     Many  years,  it  is  true, 


as  a  Schoolmaster  31 

elapsed  before  a  "stone  schoolhouse"  could  be  built 
from  the  profits  of  the  land.  But  it  was  at  last  erected — 
in  1872 — on  the  site  designated  by  the  founder,  over  the 
cellar  of  the  house  in  which  Gov.  John  Hancock  was 
born. 

In  this  deed  of  land,  dated  July  25,  1822,  the  aged 
ex-President  showed  his  appreciation  of  Governor  Han- 
cock (whose  reverend  father  built  the  house)  when  he 
called  him  that  "great,  generous,  disinterested,  bounti- 
ful benefactor  of  his  country,  once  President  of  Con- 
gress, and  afterwards  Governor  of  the  state,  to  whose 
great  exertions  and  unlimited  sacrifices  this  nation  is  so 
deeply  indebted  for  her  independence  and  present  pros- 
perity." The  following  suggestion  in  the  deed,  given 
after  the  condition  that  the  schoolmaster  be  "  learned  in 
the  Greek  and  Roman  languages,  etc,"  was  doubtless 
born  of  his  own  experience  as  a  teacher  when  the 
methods  of  education  were  not  so  practical  as  now. 

"But  I  hope  the  future  masters  will  not  think  me  too 
presumptuous  if  I  advise  them  to  begin  their  lessons  in 
Greek  and  Hebrew  by  compelling  their  pupils  to  take 
their  pens  and  write,  over  and  over  again,  copies  of  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  alphabets  in  all  their  variety  of 
characters.  This  will  be  as  good  an  exercise  in  chirog- 
raphy  as  any  they  can  use,  and  will  stamp  those  char- 
acters and  alphabets  upon  their  tender  minds  and  vigorous 
memories  so  deeply  that  the  impression  will  never  wear 
out." 

It  will  always  be  a  pleasant  thought  that  this  Adams 
School    in    Quincy    is    a    legitimate   outcome    of    John 


32  3obn  Hbame 

Adams'  successful  three  years'  life  as  the  grammar 
school  master  in  Worcester.  And  it  will  ever  compli- 
ment the  honest  patriot  that  its  influence  became  more 
than  local ;  for,  as  its  faithful  principal  for  many  years, 
Dr.  William  Everett  said  in  1890  (at  a  Forefathers' 
Day  dinner  speech  in  New  York),  "  This  school, 
founded  by  John  Adams'  fellow-citizens,  had  from  its 
opening  been  attended  by  pupils  from  every  part  of  the 
Union."  He  declared  that  out  of  every  text-book,  from 
the  first  year  to  the  last,  from  the  history  of  England  to 
the  orations  of  Cicero,  a  chance  had  been  found  to  draw 
the  lesson  that  "  the  name  United  States  takes  a  verb  in 
the  singular,"  and  that  they  were,  "as  long  as  the 
Mississippi  runs  to  the  sea,  many  and  yet  one."  That, 
he  affirmed,  was  the  patriotism  of  John  Adams ;  that 
was  the  patriotism  of  New  England  scholars,  her  school- 
masters and  her  university  men.  If  ever  it  had  seemed 
otherwise,  if  ever  the  sister  states  had  fancied  that 
Massachusetts  was  sectional  and  not  national,  it  had 
all  been  "a  momentary  cloud,  a  passing  error."  Her 
scholars  saw  the  truth  which  John  Adams  taught,  that 
"  devotion  to  the  Union  was  a  moral  duty;  .  .  .  and 
they  would  rather  the  Mayflower  had  never  sailed  than 
that  the  children  of  her  company,  spread  as  they  were 
all  over  the  Union,  should  have  a  love  of  country  less 
wide  than  its  limits." 


DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

(AT    AGE    OF    20.) 


part  Gwo 


Daniel  Ifflebster 

as  a 

Schoolmaster 


Not  firmer  on  its  base  for  ages  past 
Hath  granite  Jockey  Cap  withstood  the  blast, 
Nor  longer  shall  its  memory  remain 

Than  that  which  has  been  wrought  on  Fryeburg's  plain. 

— Colby's  Centennial  Poem. 


Daniel  Webster 


EARLY    fifty    years    after    John    Adams 
was  teaching  school  in  Worcester,  another 
youth  of  twenty,  Daniel  Webster,  is  sign- 
ing himself   at  the    close    of  a    letter    to 
his  friend  Fuller,    "The  Schoolmaster." 
"I  cannot  now  address  you  as  a  brother- 
student-in-law,"  he  wrote,  "  f or  I  am  neither  more  nor 
less    than    a    schoolmaster.' '      This  was    in   February, 
1802,    some  six  weeks  after  he  had   become  principal 
of  the  Academy  in  Fryeburg,  Maine,  then  a  "  Province 
of  Massachusetts.' '     Immediately  after  graduating  from 
Dartmouth  College  the  August  before,  he  had  entered 
the  office  in   Salisbury  of  a  next-door  neighbor  of  his 
father,  Thomas  W.  Thompson,  to  study  law.     But  he 
could  not   conscientiously  pursue  his  studies  while  his 
brother  Ezekiel,   whom   he   had  been    instrumental    in 
getting  into   college,   was    in    need  of  funds  to  remain 
there;   so,  after  four  months  of  study,  he  decided  "to 
earn  money "  by  accepting  an  offer  to  teach   for  some 
months    the   Fryeburg   Academy  at    a    salary  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year.     The   school  was   in 
good  condition,  having  been  since  its  incorporation  some 
ten  years  before  in  the  charge  of  Paul  Langdon,  a  Har- 
vard graduate  and  son   of  a  Harvard  president.     Soon 
after,   in    January,    1802,   a    few   days   before    he    was 
twenty,  the  young  law  student   left   on    horseback    for 
his  new  field  of  labor,  nearly  one  hundred  miles  away. 
He  took  with  him  his  wardrobe  (might  not  that  have 
included    the    clothes   and    mittens  of   his    college   life, 


36  ©aniei  Mebster 

which  his  mother  spun,  wove,  dyed  and  made  with 
her  own  hands?)  and  such  books  as  he  could  carry  in 
his  saddlebags.  He  had  not  then  attained  to  the  full 
development  of  manhood.  He  was  of  slender  frame, 
weighing  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds. 
His  cheek  bones  were  prominent  in  the  thin  face, 
especially  noticeable  for  the  full,  large,  searching  eyes, 
which  led  to  one  of  the  townspeople  calling  him 
''All-eyes."  Being  once  questioned  as  to  his  personal 
appearance  when  a  pedagogue,  he  replied,  "  Long, 
slender,  pale  and  all  eyes ;  indeed,  I  went  by  the  name 
of  'All-eyes'  the  country  round." 

Fryeburg  at  this  time  was  a  growing  village  of  the 
White  Mountain  district,  some  fifty  miles  from  Port- 
land. For  several  years  it  had  indulged  in  a  post  office, 
and  had  seen  published  (in  1798-99)  a  paper  called 
Russell 's  Echo,  or  the  North  Star.  It  was  noted 
for  its  activities,  the  young  Daniel  finding  it,  as  he  wrote 
soon  after  his  arrival,  "  crowded  with  merchants,  doctors 
and  lawyers."  He  is  visiting  without  ceremony  "a 
good  number  of  men  of  information  and  conversable 
manners,"  and  calling,  "with  great  pleasure  and  little 
ceremony,"  upon  Judge  Dana  and  his  wife.  But  he 
did  not  find  Pequawket — or  Fryeburg — abounding  "  in 
extraordinary  occurrences."  "Yet  nothing  here  is  un- 
pleasant," he  adds.  "There  is  a  pretty  little  society. 
The  people  treat  me  with  kindness,  and  I  have  the  for- 
tune to  find  myself  in  a  very  good  family."  This  was  in 
the  new  home  (built  in  1S01  and  burned  in  1S87)  of 
James   Osgood,  Esquire,  the   Register  of    Deeds,  who 


as  a  Scboolmaeter  37 

showed  a  practical  interest  in  the  young  man  by  offering 
him  a  shilling  and  sixpence — he  himself  received  two 
shillings  and  threepence — for  every  deed  he  would  copy 
in  "  a  large,  fair  hand,  and  with  the  requisite  care  to 
avoid  errors." 

Daniel  gladly  accepted  the  offer ;  for  since  he  could 
copy  two  deeds  in  a  winter  evening,  and  so  earn  his 
board — two  dollars  a  week — in  four  evenings,  he  would 
have  about  all  his  salary  to  give  to  his  brother.  This 
inspiring  thought  led  to  a  faithful  discharge  of  this  duty, 
as  seen  to-day  in  a  portion  of  two  volumes  of  deeds  in 
the  Register's  Office  in  Fryeburg. 

But  this  outside  work  did  not  lessen  in  the  least  his 
success  as  a  teacher.  In  the  schoolroom,  as  well  as  in 
the  town,  he  won  the  good  will  of  all.  The  small  one- 
story  building  in  which  he  taught,  built  some  eleven 
years  before  (1791),  stood  at  the  foot  of  Pine  Hill. 
Upon  its  removal  several  years  later  (1809)  to  the  site 
of  the  new  schoolhouse,  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  the 
ground  on  which  it  stood  was  purchased  by  a  college 
friend,  Col.  Samuel  A.  Bradley,  then  settled  as  a  lawyer 
in  the  town,  and  consecrated  to  the  statesman's  memory. 
Upon  discovering  one  day  that  his  hired  man  when  sent 
to  plough  his  adjoining  land  had  ploughed  into  the  Acad- 
emy lot,  Mr.  Bradley  ordered  him  to  turn  back  every 
furrow  in  the  consecrated  place.  The  vacant  lot,  owned 
to-day  by  a  Bradley— a  niece  of  Samuel— is  still  conse- 
crated to  the  schoolmaster's  memory.  This  seems  emi- 
nently appropriate,  since  it  was  through  Webster's  early 
intimacy  with  the  Bradley  family  at  Concord,  N.  H., 


3§  Daniel  Webster 

that  Webster  was  led  to  go  to  Fryeburg.  But  while 
Fryeburg  holds  so  pleasantly  in  remembrance  the  site  of 
the  schoolhouse  (which  it  is  hoped  will  yet  be  adorned 
with  a  memorial  building  worthy  of  it),  who  does  not 
love  to  picture  the  youth  himself  in  the  little  building 
reciting  to  his  pupils  Pope's  Essay  on  Man,  which  he 
had  learned  from  beginning  to  end  when  a  boy ;  or  re- 
peating one  of  the  many  Watts  hymns  he  had  learned 
before  he  was  twelve  years  old  ;  or  telling  some  thrilling 
experience  of  his  own  boyish  school  days  and  struggles  ? 
It  is  possible  he  showed  them  the  jackknife  that  his  old 
teacher  in  the  district  school,  Master  Tappan,  had  given 
him  for  committing  to  memory  the  largest  number  of 
Bible  verses  learned  between  "  a  Sunday  and  a  Monday.'' 
"Many  of  the  boys  did  well,"  says  the  master  in  refer- 
ring to  it,  "but  when  it  came  Daniel's  turn  to  recite,  I 
found  that  he  had  committed  so  much  that  after  hearing 
him  repeat  some  sixty  or  seventy  verses,  I  was  obliged 
to  give  up ;  he  telling  me  that  there  were  several  chap- 
ters yet  that  he  had  learned.'* 

Of  course  the  future  statesman  told  his  pupils  of  the 
handkerchief  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
on  it,  which  he  had  bought  in  a  shop  in  his  native  town 
when  only  eight  years  old.  How  could  he  help  repeat- 
ing parts  which  he  had  then  learned  ?  Doubtless  he  told 
them  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  then  President  of  the  United 
States,  as  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence ; 
of  Washington,  who  had  died  but  a  few  years  before  ;  or 
of  John  Adams,  who,  after  his  term  as  President,  had 
retired  to  his  Quincy  home.     He  must  have  referred  to 


as  a  Scboolmaster  39 

the  stories  his  father  had  told  him  of  his  youthful  life  in 
the  French  and  Indian  War,  or  in  the  War  of  the  Revo- 
lution, with  Stark  and  Putnam. 

The  custom  of  this  youth  of  twenty  to  open  and  close 
his  school  with  extemporaneous  prayer  made  a  great  im- 
pression. Years  afterwards  one  of  his  pupils,  Thomas 
P.  Hill,  wrote  Professor  Sanborn,  of  Dartmouth  College, 
that  he  could  never  forget  the  "solemnity  of  manner 
with  which  that  duty  was  performed. "  Perhaps  there 
is  only  one  other  occasion  in  his  life  to  be  compared  to 
it, — the  repetition  of  the  Lord' s  Prayer  on  his  deathbed  ; 
when,  having  recited  the  first  sentence,  a  feeling  of 
faintness  coming  over  him,  he  paused  and  exclaimed, 
earnestly,  "Hold  me  up ;  I  do  not  wish  to  pray  with 
a  fainting  voice."  Being  raised,  he  repeated  with  won- 
derful distinctness  the  whole  prayer,  ending  with  these 
words  :  "  And  now  unto  God  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy 
Ghost  be  praise  forever  and  forever.  Peace  on  earth  and 
good  will  to  men, — that  is  the  happiness,  the  essence, 
— good  will  toward  nien" 

After  Webster  had  been  teaching  four  months,  an  ex- 
hibition of  the  school  so  pleased  the  trustees  that  they 
passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  "Preceptor  Webster,''  with 
the  request  that  he  "accept  five  dollars  as  a  small 
acknowledgment  of  their  sense  of  his  service  this  day 
performed."  In  referring  to  this,  Webster  calls  it  a 
"  small  extraordinary  gratuity." 

He  had  intended  to  devote  the  short  vacation  that 
followed  to  the  reading  of  Sallust,  but  upon  receiving 
on  the  day  of   the  exhibition  the  news  of  his   brother 


4o  Baniel  Webster 

"  Zeke's"  illness  at  college,  he  decided  to  go  to  him  ;  so, 
mounting  a  horse,  he  took  his  first  quarter's  salary — 
the  first  earnings  of  his  life,  he  says — and  went  to 
Hanover  to  give  it  to  his  brother.  He  afterwards  says 
of  this  act,  "  Having  enjoyed  this  sincere  and  high 
pleasure,  I  hied  me  back  again  to  my  school  and  my 
copying  of  deeds." 

Besides  copying  his  deeds,  Daniel  Webster  wrote 
poetry,  writing  to  a  friend  concerning  it,  "I  do  it  by 
myself,  not  from  any  wish  to  show  my  productions  to 
the  world,  but  for  amusement,  and  to  keep  alive  some 
taste  for  the  belles-lettres."  One  letter  to  his  friend 
Fuller  (Habijah  W.)  he  begins  by  writing  the  following 
twenty-five  lines  on  Memory  : — 

Once  more  to  prattle  on  her  darling  theme, 

Once  more  to  wake  the  soft,  mellifluous  stream, 

That  brings  us  all  our  blessings  as  it  flows, 

Those  currents  Friendship's  golden  ore  disclose, 

The  Muse  essays  her  little  skill ; 

And  tho'  her  lightsome  lay 

No  master's  hand  display, 

Tho'  loose  her  lyre  and  wild  her  song, 

Tho'  Seraph  fire  tip  not  her  tongue, 

The  friend — oh !  such  a  friend — will  hear  her  still. 

O  Memory !  thou  Protean  friend  or  foe, 

Parent  of  half  our  joy  and  half  our  woe ! 

Thou  dost  the  rapture  which  I  feel  impart, 

And  thou  the  griefs  that  press  around  my  heart. 

Thine  is  a  motley  train, — 

Despondence  there  is  seen, 

And  Sorrow,  pale-faced  queen, 

And  Gladness  there,  with  merry  face, 


as  a  Schoolmaster 


That  ne'er  did  wear  a  sad  grimace, 

And  buxom  Pleasure  sporting  o'er  the  plain. 

Next  moment,  lo  !  appears 

Some  plenteous  cause  of  tears  : 

Some  pleasure  fled, — for  pleasure  flies, — 

Or  Symonds,  sped  beyond  the  skies, 

And  Memory  cancels  all  the  good  she  grants. 

Here  he  suddenly  stops  and  says,  "  But  if  I  poetize 
further  upon  Memory  I  shall  not  have  room  to  tell  you 
half  what  I  wish  ;  so,  sweet  Miss  Muse,  we  will  dismiss 
you." 

But  every  little  while  he  called  upon  the  Muse,  con- 
fessing to  his  friend  Fuller  that  he  "  rattled  in  as  many 
as  twenty  rhymes  while  in  that  Province  Fryeburg." 
Tnis  he  considered  a  "pretty  large  number  for  him." 
The  longest  one  seems  to  be  that  addressed  to  Mr.  John 
Porter,  which  as  given  here  may  illustrate  his  style. 

Health  to  my  friends !  began  my  earliest  song; 
Health  to  my  friends !  my  latest  shall  prolong. 
Nor  health  alone;  be  four  more  blessings  thine, — 
Cash  and  the  Fair  One,  Friendship  and  the  Nine. 
Are  these  too  little?     Dost  thou  pant  for  fame? 
Give  him,  ye  Powers,  the  bubble  of  a  name ! 
Ask  all  of  Heaven  an  honest  man  should  dare, 
And  Heaven  will  grant  it,  if  it  hear  my  prayer. 
'Tis  true — let  Locke  deny  it  to  the  last — 
Man  has  three  beings, — Present,  Future,  Past. 
We  are,  we  were,  we  shall  be ;  this  contains 
The  field  of  all  our  pleasures  and  our  pains. 
Enjoyment  makes  the  present  hour  its  own. 
And  Hope  looks  forward  into  worlds  unknown  ; 
While  backward  turned,  our  thoughts  incessant  stray, 


42  2)aniel  Webster 

And  'mid  the  fairy  forms  of  Memory  play. 

Say,  does  the  present  ill  affect  thee  more 

Than  that  impending  o'er  a  future  hour? 

Or  does  this  moment's  blessing  more  delight 

Than  Hope's  gay  vision  fluttering  in  thy  sight? 

Call  now  the  events  of  former  years  to  view, 

And  live  in  fancy  all  thy  life  anew. 

Do  not  the  things  that  many  years  ago 

Gave  woe  or  joy,  now  give  thee  joy  or  woe? 

In  this  review,  as  former  times  pass  by, 

Dost  thou  not  laugh  again,  or  weep,  or  sigh? 

Dost  thou  not  change,  as  changing  scenes  advance,- 

Mourn  with  a  friend,  or  frolic  at  the  dance? 

Think  when  thy  worth  attracted  Symonds  first, 

And  with  new  sorrow  give  him  to  the  dust ! 

With  present  time  thus  Hope  and  Memory  join, 

This  to  bear  back,  and  that  to  extend  the  line ; 

And  all  must  own,  except  some  learned  dunce, 

That  every  man  lives  three  times  and  at  once. 

I'll  state  a  case;  but  Vanity,  the  elf, 

Obliges  me  to  state  it  of  myself. 

In  latitude  some  more  than  forty-three, 

And  longitude,  say  seventy-first  degree, 

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  my  tea; 

And  now  and  then,  as  varying  fancies  choose, 

To  trifle  with  young  Mary  or  the  Muse. 

This  life,  though  pleasant  of  its  kind,  is  yet 

Much  too  inactive ;  I'm  resolved  to  quit. 

Now  Spring  comes  on,  her  milder  sceptre  yields, 

And  fairly  fights  stern  Winter  from  our  fields. 

Yon  grassy  glade  with  gaudiest  tulip  dressed, 


as  a  Schoolmaster  43 


Where  the  Muse  wanders,  "  willing  to  be  pressed," 

Where  "  doves  "  gay  frolicking  on  ulmar  "  boughs," 

Force  one  to  instant  rhyme  of  "Loves  "  and  "Vows," 

Would  be  delightful,  were  that  thing  called  mind 

Pleased  with  the  present  and  to  fate  resigned ; 

But  on  the  soul,  if  wild  ambition  seize, 

Farewell,  as  Horace  sings,  I  think,  to  peace ! 

Our  college  life,  whate'er  the  proud  may  say, 

To  our  existence  is  the  month  of  May. 

O  then  I  knew  not,  or  I  felt  not,  care ; 

Thoughts  free  as  nature,  and  as  light  as  air. 

Yet  even  then,— ingratitude  how  base  !— 

We  thought  we  lived  in  quite  a  piteous  case, 

E'en  then  we  deemed  our  fates  were  much  to  blame, 

And  called  Miss  Fortune  many  a  saucy  name. 

Though  life's  gay  stream  ran  dimpling  all  along, 

Smooth  as  the  numbers  of  a  tuneful  song, 

There  we  had  friends  enough,  and  books  a  score, 

Appointments  some,  and  disappointments  more  ; 

Could  count  the  Muse,  and,  as  you  know,  dispense, 

For  pretty  little  rhymes,  with  all  our  sense; 

Could  sit  down  sociable  as  Mother  Bunch, 

And  "  dip  in  sentiment,"  or  "  dip  in  punch." 

May  Heaven  forgive  the  man  who  with  all  these 

Cannot  find  cause  enough  to  be  at  ease ! 

God  gave  me  pride— I  thank  him  ;  if  he  choose 

To  give  me  what  shall  make  that  pride  of  use, 

Chance  and  the  talent,  I'll  adore  his  will ; 

If  he  deny  them,  I'll  adore  it  still. 

Now  Hope  leans  forward  on  Life's  slender  line, — 

Shows  me  a  doctor,  lawyer,  or  divine ; 

Ardent  springs  forward  to  the  distant  goal, 

But  indecision  clogs  the  eager  soul. 

Heaven  bless  my  friend,  and  when  he  marks  his  way, 

And  takes  his  blessings  o'er  life's  troubled  sea, 

In  that  important  moment  may  he  find 


44  Baniel  Mebster 

Choice  and  his  friends  and  duty  all  combined ! 
And  Heaven  grant  me,  whatever  luck  betide, 
Be  fame  or  fortune  given  or  denied, 
Some  cordial  friend  to  meet  my  warm  desire, 
Honest  as  John  and  good  as  Nehemiah. 

D.  Webster. 

From  the  first  of  Daniel  Webster's  coming  to  this 
mountain  village,  so  prettily  situated  above  the  broad 
intervales  of  the  Saco  River,  he  inclined  to  be  poetic. 
"  If  J  had  an  engagement  of  love,"  he  wrote  his  friend 
Samuel  A.  Bradley,  on  one  of  the  fine  spring  days,  "  I 
should  certainly  arrange  my  thoughts  of  this  morning  for 
a  romantic  epistle.  How  fine  it  would  be  to  point  out  a 
resemblance  between  the  clear  lustre  of  the  sun  and  a  pair 
of  bright  eyes  !  The  snow,  too,  instead  of  embarrassing, 
would  much  assist  me.  What  fitter  emblem  of  virgin 
purity  !  A  pair  of  pigeons  that  enjoy  the  morning  on 
the  ridge  of  the  barn  might  be  easily  transformed  into 
turtle-doves  breathing  reciprocal  vows."  Then  feeling 
that  perhaps  he  was  becoming  too  sentimental,  he  ex- 
claims, "  But  how  shall  I  resist  this  temptation  to  be  a 
little  romantic  and  poetical  ?  *  Loves'  and  '  doves  '  this 
moment  chime  in  my  fancy  in  spite  of  me.  '  Spark- 
ling eyes  '  and  '  mournful  sighs,'  '  constancy  of  soul,' 
1  like  needle  to  the  pole,'  and  a  whole  retinue  of  poetic 
and  languishing  expressions  are  now  ready  to  pour  from 
my  pen."  The  cui  bono  of  the  New  England  nature 
seeming  then  to  shadow  his  fancy,  he  pauses  to  say : 
"  But  what  a  pity  that  all  this  inspiration  should  be  lost 
for  want  of  an  object !     But  so  it  is.     Nobody  will  hear 


as  a  Scbcolmaeter  45 

my  pretty  ditties  unless,  forsooth,  I  should  turn  gravely 
about  and  declaim  them  to  the  maid  who  is  set- 
ting the  table  for  breakfast ;  but  what  an  indelicate  idea  ! 
A  maid  to  be  the  subject  of  a  ballad  !  '  Twere  blasphemy. 
Apollo  would  never  forgive  me.  Well,  then,  I  will 
turn  about  and  drink  down  all  my  poetry  with  my  coffee. 
'Yes,  ma'am,  I  will  come  to  breakfast.'  " 

Three  months  later,  after  tea,  a  lovely  June  evening, 
as  he  wrote  his  friend  Fuller,  he  "  lighted  a  cigar  and 
took  a  turn  among  the  meadows.  .  .  .  Nature  was  all 
smiling,  and  by  a  kind  of  sympathy  she  drew  me  in  to 
laugh  with  her,  and  my  resentments  all  went  off  in  fume. 
.  .  .  Were  I  a  devotee  to  Cupid,  I  should  improve  this 
morning  in  penning  something  which  I  have  heard 
called  a  love-letter.  A  romantic  imagination  might  find, 
as  I  think,  ample  scope  among  meadows  and  dales,  and 
4  moss-crowned  banks,'  and  '  purling  rills,'  and  '  songsters 
of  the  grove,'  and  '  morning  breezes,'  and  other  appara- 
tus of  love-poetry.  How  unfortunate  that  I  neither  am, 
nor  can  feign  myself  to  be,  in  love  with  some  Dulcinea 
of  such  beauty  as  l  paragons  description,'  such  charms 
as  force  mankind  to  '  worship  where  they  dare  not  love,' 
of  such  dignity  and  command  in  her  aspect,  and  such  un- 
affected modesty  and  reserve,  that  even  4  her  shadow  dare 
not  follow  her  when  she  goes  to  dress ! '  All  those 
pretty  sayings,  picked  up  at  the  expense  of  so  much 
time,  must  all  be  useless  for  lack  of  some  one  to  address 
them  to.     Alas!     Alas!" 

But  this  poetic,  romantic  feeling  did  not  distract  the 
mind  of  the  schoolmaster  from  more  weighty  matters. 


46  Daniel  Webster 

He  tells  his  friend  of  Mr.  Fessenden's  mother  "  having 
departed  to  the  bourne  whence  no  traveler  returns,"  when, 
"with  bright  prospects  of  future  felicity,  she  attended 
the  summons  without  a  murmur,  and,  full  of  years,  sunk 
to  repose  on  the  bosom  of  her  Maker."  He  speaks  of 
having  quite  a  lonely  week  because  his  friends — Dana 
and  McGaw — had  gone  to  Haverhill  court.  After 
wishing  he  could  have  a  cup  of  coffee  with  his  friend 
Samuel, — but  even  he  is  away, — he  declares  that  this 
letter  shall  tell  him  that  he  is  remembered  "with  much 
tenderness  and  esteem."  * 

Like  John  Adams  in  his  schoolmaster  days  in  Worces- 
ter, Daniel  Webster  longed  for  companionship  of  friends. 
If  he  could  not  see  them  he  would  have  correspondence, 
though  the  mail  came  but  once  a  fortnight.  Yet  friends, 
even  the  "  misses,"  did  not  always  satisfy.  In  referring 
once  to  an  intended  afternoon  ride  to  Conway,  which 
had  been  a  topic  of  that  day's  conversation,  he  declared 
to  Samuel  Bradley  that  the  "  misses  enjoyed  it  finely  in 
prospect,"  and  no  doubt  "the  retrospect  would  be 
equally  pleasant."  But  as  for  him,  ut  ad  me  revertor, 
such  things  were  "  most  charming  while  future,"  and  it 
was  his  object,  therefore,  to  keep  them  future  as  much 
as  possible. 

But  this  youth  of  twenty  rather  enjoyed  the  "  Maine 
misses."     Speaking    of    them    to    his     friend    Merrill 


*  This  letter  to  Samuel  A.  Bradley,  framed  in  wood  taken  from 
the  little  schoolhouse  in  which  Webster  taught,  is  now— 1903— 
a  valued  possession  of  the  Hon.  George  B.  Barrows,  of  Frye- 
burg,  one  of  the  Academy's  most  honored  trustees. 


as  a  Scboolmaster  47 

(Thomas  A.),  he  writes  June  7,  1802:  "In  point  of 
beauty  I  do  not  feel  competent  to  decide.  I  cannot 
calculate  the  precise  value  of  a  dimple,  nor  estimate  the 
charm  of  an  eyebrow,  yet  I  see  nothing  repulsive  in  the 
appearance  of  these  Maine  misses.  When  Mr.  McGaw 
told  me  he  would  introduce  me  to  the  Pequawket  con- 
stellation, it  sounded  so  odd  that  I  could  not  tell  whether 
he  was  going  to  show  me  Virgo  or  Ursa  Major ;  yet  I 
had  charity  to  put  it  down  for  the  former,  and  have 
found  no  reason  to  alter  my  decision."  He  then  says 
that  being  a  pedagogue,  and  having  many  of  the  ladies 
in  the  school,  he  could  not  "  set  out  in  a  bold  progress  of 
gallantry,"  but  only  now  and  then  make  one  of  them 
"  his  best  bow  "  and  say  a  few  things  "  piano,"  as  the 
musicians  have  it.  Feeling,  however,  that  "  new  towns 
had  usually  more  males  that  females,  and  old  commercial 
towns  the  reverse  "(he  was  told  that  in  Salem  and  New- 
buryport  the  majority  of  females  was  "  immense "),  he 
hoped  that  in  Fryeburg  his  sex  would  "  continue  the 
mastery,  though  the  female  squadron  was  by  no  means 
contemptible."  To  another  friend — H.  W.  Fuller — he 
wrote  he  had  heard  no  "complaint  of  scarcity"  con- 
cerning the  misses.  To  his  question  as  to  how  many 
misses  were  there  he  could  not  tell.  "  I  forgot  to  bring 
a  stick  to  cut  a  notch,  like  the  Indian,  for  every  one  I 
see."  He  then  tells  of  one  passing  that  moment  by  his 
table  who  had  given  her  opinion  that  "  Mr.  Webster 
was  a  very  bashful  man."  Upon  which  he  declared  that 
he  would  "  never  give  her  reason  to  think  otherwise. 
But  these  things  are  all  vanity." 


4s  2>antet  Webster 

So  concluded  this  staid  schoolmaster  of  twenty.  He 
had  an  eye,  however,  for  the  "  nearly  thirty  white  mus- 
lin trails  across  a  ballroom  on  an  evening,"  referring, 
doubtless  to  the  balls  held  in  the  third  story  of  Mr. 
Osgood's  house,  when  "lighted  candles  and  smiling 
faces"  made  all  gay  and  joyous.  Young  ladies  came 
on  horseback  through  forests  a  long  day's  journey  to 
attend  the  great  ball  of  the  year, — that  which  closed  the 
annual  exhibition  of  the  academy.  After  hearing  that 
his  friend  Fuller  had  enjoyed  one  of  these  pleasant 
dances,  his  serious  nature  asserted  itself  by  declaring 
that  dancing  was  a  good,  and,  as  he  supposed,  an  inno- 
cent amusement,  but  "  we  never  need  go  to  halls  and 
assembly  rooms  to  enjoy  it.  The  world  is  nothing  but 
a  contra-dance,  and  every  one,  volens,  nole?is,  has  a 
part  in  it.  Some  are  sinking,  others  rising,  others 
balancing,  some  gradually  ascending  towards  the  top, 
others  flamingly  leading  down ;  some  cast  off  from 
Fame  and  Fortune,  and  some  again  in  a  comfortable 
allema?ide  with  both.  If  you  should  ask  me  what 
station  I  should  allot  myself  in  this  dance  of  life  I  should 
be  staggered  to  tell  you,  though  I  believe,  by  some  con- 
founded ill  luck,  I  have  slipped  a  foot,  and  am  fairly  on 
the  knee  here  in  Pequawket." 

While  in  Fryeburg  the  young  teacher  made  good  use 
of  the  Social  Library  which  the  town  afforded,  finding 
books  there  he  had  not  been  able  to  find  in  Hanover. 
He  and  his  roommate  read  aloud  alternately  the  Spec- 
tator and  Tatler,  and  had  discussions  upon  English 
literature.     At  one  time,  as  an  amusement,  he  says,  he 


as  a  Schoolmaster  49 


is  perusing  the  Pursuits  of  Literature ;  a  book  which 
"  had  exerted  so  much  curiosity  among  the  learned,  and 
called  down  so  much  condemnation  from  the  Democ- 
racy.' '  He  declared  that  "the  scantiness  of  the  poem 
itself  and  the  abundance  of  notes  "  brought  to  his  mind 
Sheridan's  elegant  metaphor  of  a  neat  rivulet  of  text 
meandering  through  a  meadow  of  margin."  Among 
other  books  he  read  while  there  he  mentions  Adams' 
Defence  of  the  America7t  Constitution,  Mosheim's 
Ecclesiastical  History,  two  or  three  volumes  of  Black- 
stone's  Commentaries,  and  Mr.  Ames'  celebrated  speech 
on  the  British  treaty,  which  he  committed  to  memory. 
He  made  it  an  object  to  investigate  facts  concerning 
the  political  history  of  the  United  States,  taking  up 
for  one  thing  Williams'  Vermont.  He  watched  the 
political  horizon,  daring  even  to  criticise  President  Jef- 
ferson ;  as,  for  instance,  report  having  reached  him  that 
the  marshal  of  New  Hampshire  had  been  removed,  he 
confessed  he  did  not  much  expect  it.  "  But  these  are 
Jefferson's  doings,  and  they  are  marvelous  in  our  eyes." 
In  this  same  letter  (to  Thomas  A.  Merrill,  June  7, 
1S02)  he  says  "the  waning  orb  of  Democracy  must 
soon  be  eclipsed.  The  penumbra  begins  to  come  on 
already."  He  revealed  an  interest  in  leading  men  of 
the  day,  which  he  had  shown  in  the  following  lines  he 
wrote  on  Washington  when  a  senior  at  college. 

Ah!  Washington,  thou  once  didst  guide  the  helm, 

And  point  each  danger  to  our  infant  realm ; 

Didst  show  the  gulf  where  faction's  tempests  sweep, 

And  the  big  thunders  frolic  o'er  the  deep  ; 

Through  the  red  wave  didst  lead  our  bark,  nor  stood, 


50  Daniel  Webster 

Like  ancient  Moses,  the  other  side  the  flood. 

But  thou  art  gone, — yes,  gone,  and  we  deplore 

The  man,  the  Washington,  we  knew  before; 

But,  when  thj  spirit  mounted  to  the  sky, 

And  scarce  beneath  thee  left  a  tearless  eye, 

Tell  what  Elisha  then  thy  mantle  caught, 

Warmed  with  thy  virtue,  with  thy  wisdom  fraught. 

Say,  was  it  Adams?  was  it  he  who  bare 

His  country's  toils,  nor  knew  a  separate  care  ; 

Whose  bosom  heaved  indignant  as  he  saw 

Columbia  groan  beneath  oppression's  law; 

Who  stood  and  spurned  corruption  at  his  feet, 

Firm  as  "the  rock  on  which  the  storm  shall  beat." 

Or  was  it  he  whose  votaries  now  disclaim 

Thy  godlike  deeds,  and  sully  all  thy  fame? 

Spirit  of  Washington  !  oh,  grant  reply, 

And  let  thy  country  know  thee  from  the  sky. 

Break  through  the  clouds,  and  be  thine  accents  heard, — 

Accents  that  oft  mid  war's  rude  onset  cheered. 

Thy  voice  shall  hush  again  our  mad  alarms, 

Lull  monster  faction  with  thy  potent  charms, 

And  grant  to  whosoe'er  ascends  thy  seat 

Worth  half  like  thine,  and  virtues  half  as  great. 

At  this  time  of  his  life  his  roommate  declared  that 
"  Mr.  Webster  did  not  entertain  any  adequate  expecta- 
tions of  his  future  eminence,  or,  if  he  had  them,  he  con- 
cealed them."  But  the  secretary  of  the  trustees  of  the 
Academy  prophesied  that  if  "  Mr.  Webster  should  live 
and  have  health,  and  pursue  a  straightforward  course  of 
industry  and  virtue,  he  would  become  one  of  the  great- 
est men  his  country  had  produced," — a  prophecy  which 
has  been  richly  fulfilled. 

His  pupils  in  their  reminiscences  of  him  all  speak  of 


as  a  Schoolmaster 


his  modest  and  dignified  manner.  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel 
Osgood — a  son  of  the  man  with  whom  he  boarded — 
remembers  him  as  "  usually  serious,  but  often  facetious 
and  pleasant."  "  He  was  an  agreeable  companion,'' 
he  adds,  "and  eminently  social  with  all  who  shared 
his  friendship.  He  was  greatly  beloved  by  all  who 
knew  him.  His  habits  were  strictly  abstemious,  and 
he  neither  took  wine  nor  strong  drink.  He  was  punc- 
tual in  his  attendance  upon  public  worship.  I  never 
heard  him  use  a  profane  word,  and  never  saw  him  lose 
his  temper."  This  "  remarkable  unanimity  of  temper" 
which  he  ever  manifested  in  school  was  a  "matter  of 
common  observation,"  according  to  the  testimony  of  an- 
other pupil, — Thomas  P.  Hill. 

While  in  Fryeburg,  Webster  enjoyed  fishing  and  gun- 
ning, although  one  of  his  pupils  tells  us  that  even  when 
off  on  an  excursion  he  would  take  a  volume  of  poetry 
from  his  pocket  to  read.  He  often  went  to  the  fields 
and  hills  for  recitation  and  study. 

The  following  store  account  for  the  time  he  was  in 
the  town,  copied  from  an  old  ledger  of  John  and  Robert 
Bradley  (brothers  of  Samuel) ,  suggests  a  practical  side 
of  the  life  there  : — 

Daniel  Webster,  Dr. 
1802. 


Jan.  9.     To  soap  6d  (12)  Ribbon  8d  Comb  6d  (30)  Quills 

is  6d 

Feb.  2.     Pencil  7d  (6)  Ring  5s  ( 10)  Silk  5d 
Feb.  12.     Book  4s  6d  (13)  Segars  od  (20)  Raisins  od 
Feb.  23.     Sundries  3s  3d  (March  1)  Segars  9d    . 
March  4.     Raisins  etc.  (10)  Wafers  \]/z  (16)  Paper  2s  4d 


'  -53 
1. 00 

1. 00 
.67 
•45 


52 


©aniel  Mebster 


Raisins  5d  (Apr.  7)  1  sq.  Glass  6d  Watch  Key 


1802. 
March  19 

is 

Apr.  10.     Hose  7s  6d  (17)  3  1-8  yds.  velvet,  8s  6d  per  yd 

Apr.  17.      l/2  yard  B.  hollon  is  2d  2  skeins  silk  is  2d 

Apr.  17.     Buttons  is  (29)  20  cents  lent  is  2d      . 

Apr.  29.     1  best  whip  9s  May  18th  1  Quire  paper  is  6d 

May  18.     1  bunch  quills  is  4d  yz  bushel  corn  is  9d    . 

June  1.     1  box  wafers  5d  June  5  one  powder  flask  is  9d 

June  5.      %  lb.  powder  is  2d  June  7  one  quire  paper  is  6d 

June  8.     One  bunch  segars  9d,  June  9th  cash  lent  30s 

June  12.     Pair  silk  hose  14s  6d  (17)  1  paper  ink  powder  9d 

July  1.     %  lb.  raisins  5d  (3)  one  skein  silk  5d    . 

July  5.     To  cash  18s  (6th)  ]i  m  Quills  is  6d      . 

July  19.     1  penknife  4s  l/z  quire  letter  paper  iod 

July  29.     1  yd.  ribband  6d  (31st)  1  pair  gloves  4s 

Aug.  2.     Two  dozen  quills  is  4d  2  yds.  cassimere  14s  6d 

per  yd.  silk  is  2d  twist  is  2d 
Aug.  2.     Yq,  yd.  linen  is  2d  ferret  3d  buttons  7d  4  small 

buttons  4d 
Sept.  3.     One  trunk  13s 


l>  -32 

5.68 

.38 

•37 

1-75 

•52 

.36 

•44 

5-i3 

2-54 

.14 

3-25 
.80 


5.26 

•33 
2.17 


CONTRA. 


l802. 

June.     By  cash  24s  Sept.  3d  Cash  120s 

1804 

Apr.  29th.     By  cash  of  Samuel  A.  Bradley 


$33-89 
.  $24.00 

.       9.64 


As  the  schoolmaster  went  from  home  to  home,  the 
children  were  attracted  to  him.  Indeed,  this  power  of 
drawing  children  was  great  through  all  his  after  years. 
One  cannot  forget  in  this  connection  his  little  grand- 
child who,  on  failing  to  see  him  as  he  stopped  at  the 
door  for  a  moment,  answered  the  offer  of  a  glittering 
list  of  Christmas  presents  as  a  pacifier  by  saying,  'midst 
deep  sobs,  "All  I  want  is  grandpa  in  my  stocking." 


as  a  Schoolmaster  53 

This  power  that  Webster  had  upon  the  young  was 
doubtless  one  reason  why,  when  he  was  teaching  in 
Fryeburg,  he  was  chosen  to  deliver  the  Fourth  of  July 
oration.  Through  the  Rev.  H.  Bernard  Carpenter, 
who  lived  in  Fryeburg  some  two  years  ere  becoming 
the  pastor  of  the  Hollis  Street  Church  in  Boston,  we  can 
see  this  youth  of  twenty  as  he  stood  in  the  little  town 
meeting  house  that  memorable  Independence  Day  of 
1802. 

'Twas  Magna  Charta's  morning  in  July 

When,  in  that  temple  reared  of  old  to  truth, 

He  rose  in  the  bronze  bloom  of  blood-bright  youth 

To  speak  what  he  re-spoke  when  death  was  nigh. 

Strongly  he  stood,  Olympian-framed,  with  front 

Like  some  carved  crag  where  sleeps  the  lightning's  brunt ; 

Black,  thunderous  brows,  and  thunderous,  deep-toned  speech, 

Like  Pericles,  of  whom  the  people  said 

That  when  he  spoke  it  thundered ;  round  him  spread 

The  calm  of  summer  nights,  when  the  stars  teach 

In  music  overhead. 

The  whole  audience  must  have  been  aroused  even  at 
the  close  of  the  first  paragraph  :  "  Illustrious  spectacle  ! 
Six  millions  of  people  this  day  surround  their  altars  and 
unite  in  an  address  to  Heaven  for  the  preservation  of 
their  rights.  Every  rank  and  every  age  imbibe  the 
general  spirit.  From  the  lisping  inhabitant  of  the 
cradle  to  the  aged  warrior  whose  gray  hairs  are  fast 
sinking  in  the  western  horizon  of  life,  every  voice  is 
this  day  tuned  to  the  accents  of  liberty  !  Washington  ! 
My  country!  "  etc.  (see  Appendix,  i).  In  it  he  dwelt 
upon  the  Constitution  and  the  necessity  of  being  true  to 


54  2>aniel  Webster 

it;  indeed,  it  was  but  the  forerunner  of  the  thought 
expressed  some  fifty  years  later  when  acknowledging  a 
substantial  gift  from  American  citizens  in  appreciation 
of  his  public  service,  he  wrote:  "Yes,  gentlemen,  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union !  I  place  them  together. 
If  they  stand,  they  must  stand  together.  If  they  fall, 
they  must  fall  together.  They  are  the  images  which 
present  to  every  American  his  surest  reliance  and  his 
brightest  hopes."  This  thought  must  have  been  upper- 
most in  his  oration,  since  a  pupil  who  heard  it  (Thomas 
P.  Hill)  said,  years  afterward,  that  the  only  sentence 
which  had  not  escaped  his  memory  related  to  the  Con- 
stitution. It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  last  speech 
the  great  statesman  made  in  the  Senate  (July  17,  1S50) 
closed  with  the  same  peroration  as  this  youthful  venture. 
But  this  was  not  his  first  experience;  for  two  years 
before,  when  a  junior  in  college,  he  had  delivered  a 
Fourth  of  July  oration  before  the  college  faculty  and 
citizens  of  Hanover,  at  the  unanimous  request  of  the 
citizens,  which  has  been  published  these  later  years. 

After  having  slept  in  oblivion  for  some  eighty  years, 
the  original  manuscript  of  the  Fryeburg  oration  was 
found,  with  others  of  Webster's  private  papers,  in  an 
old  junk  shop  in  Boston.  It  came  into  the  hands  of 
Mr.  A.  F.  Lewis,  of  Fryeburg,  who  now  owns  it  as  a 
valued  possession.  In  the  Preface  to  his  publication  of 
it,  in  a  pamphlet  called  The  Illustrated  Fryebtirg 
Webster  Memorial,  it  is  said  that  one  enthusiastic 
farmer  who  heard  the  oration  ventured  the  bold  remark 
that  Daniel  might  some  day  even  attain  the  lofty  position 


as  a  Schoolmaster  55 

of  governor  of  New  Hampshire.  Mr.  Lewis  himself, 
after  saying  that  it  seemed  almost  incredible  that  such  a 
production  could  have  emanated  from  a  young  man  of 
only  twenty  years,  declares  that  for  "  beauty  of  style, 
profound  thought,  logical  reasoning  and  statesmanlike 
wisdom,  the  early  history  of  the  world's  greatest  masters 
may  be  challenged  to  produce  anything  which  will  bear 
comparison  with  this  Fryeburg  effort."  Dr.  Samuel 
Osgood  recalled  it  as  having  "great  merit, "  and  being 
"  a  finished  production." 

Upon  the  discovery  of  the  long-lost,  clearly  written 
manuscript,  Whittier,  who,  as  an  occasional  visitor  to 
Fryeburg,  loved  the  pretty  town,  wrote  Mr.  Lewis :  "  I 
am  heartily  glad  at  the  discovery  of  the  oration  of  the 
great  orator  and  statesman.  It  is  a  very  pleasant  thing 
for  your  beautiful  village,  which  cherishes  the  memory 
of  its  illustrious  resident  and  teacher  as  one  of  its  most 
valuable  treasures." 

When  the  time  of  Webster's  engagement  as  principal 
of  the  Academy  was  up,  he  was  earnestly  pressed  to 
remain  on  an  increased  salary.  He  had  even  given  the 
subject  a  thought  in  a  letter  which  he  signed,  Daniel 
Webster,  Fed.  "What  shall  I  do?  Shall  I  say,  'Yes, 
gentlemen,'  and  sit  down  here  and  spend  my  days  in  a 
kind  of  comfortable  privacy,  or  shall  I  relinquish  these 
prospects  and  enter  into  a  profession  where  my  feelings 
will  be  constantly  harassed  by  objects,  either  of  dis- 
honesty or  misfortune,  where  my  living  must  be  squeezed 
from  penury  (for  rich  folks  seldom  go  to  law),  and  my 
moral  principle  continually  be  at  hazard  ?     I  agree  with 


56  ©aniel  Mebster 

you  that  the  law  is  well  calculated  to  draw  forth  the 
powers  of  the  mind ;  but  what  are  its  effects  on  the 
heart?  Are  they  equally  propitious?  Does  it  inspire 
benevolence  and  awake  tenderness?  or  does  it,  by  a 
frequent  repetition  of  wretched  objects,  blunt  sensibility 
and  stifle  the  still,  small  voice  of  mercy?  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  un- 
just, nor  hide  it,  like  a  slothful  servant,  in  a  napkin." 
He  then  tells  what  draws  him  to  the  law.  First,  it  is 
his  father's  wish.  "He  does  not  dictate,  it  is  true; 
but  how  much  short  of  dictation  is  the  mere  wish  of  a 
parent  whose  labors  of  life  are  wasted  on  favors  to  his 
children  ? "  Secondly,  it  is  the  wish  of  his  friends. 
"They  are  urgent  and  pressing."  Mr.  Thompson, 
with  whom  he  had  studied  those  four  months,  even 
offered  his  tuition  gratis,  and  to  relinquish  his  stand  to 
him.  "  If  I  prosecute  the  profession,"  he  concludes, 
"  I  pray  God  to  fortify  me  against  its  temptations. 
To  the  winds  I  dismiss  those  light  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. 
But  let  us  not  rely  too  much  on  ourselves ;  let  us  look 
to  some  less  fallible  guide  to  direct  us  among  the  temp- 
tations that  surround  us." 

Years  afterward  this  serious  look  at  law  study  was 
seen  in  what  he  wrote  his  son  Edward  (September, 
1838)  :   "  If  you  intend  yourself  for  the  bar  you  must 


as  a  Scboolmaeter  57 

begin  early  to  contract  a  habit  of  diligent  and  ambitious 
study.  You  must  be  emulous  of  excellence.  An  ordi- 
nary lawyer  is  not  an  enviable  character." 

He  finally  decided  to  continue  the  study  of  law  with 
Mr.  Thompson  in  Salisbury.  Before  leaving  Fryeburg 
in  September,  he  tells  us  in  his  autobiography  that  his 
brother  Ezekiel  came  to  visit  him,  and  that  they  made  a 
journey  together  to  the  lower  part  of  Maine  ere  returning 
to  Salisbury.  During  his  life  in  Fryeburg — not  a  year 
in  all — he  gained,  as  his  pupil  Thomas  Hill  has  declared, 
the  "universal  respect  of  both  scholars  and  villagers." 
On  his  departure  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
Rev.  William  Fessenden,  whose  son  Samuel  had  been 
one  of  his  pupils,  sent  him  the  thanks  of  the  board  for 
his  "faithful  services  while  preceptor  of  Fryeburg 
Academy."  While  one  of  the  trustees  predicted  that 
he  would  become  the  first  man  in  the  country,  all  were 
impressed  with  his  abilities  during  his  residence  there. 

Webster  did  not  forget  the  little  school.  A  few 
months  later,  January,  1803,  he  is  writing  a  friendly 
letter  to  his  successor,  Amos  J.  Cook,  who  for  more 
than  thirty  years  was  its  master.  He  wondered  why  he 
had  not  heard  from  him.  "  But  I  will  pardon  you,"  he 
writes.  "  Your  entire  devotion  to  business  would  render 
you  excusable  if  you  should  neglect  to  write  even  to 
your  sweetheart."  After  telling  pleasant  things  of  mu- 
tual friends,  Bingham  and  others,  he  asks  him  if  he 
doesn't  suppose  that  he  must  be  "a  little  envious"  of 
the  lustre  of  his  "pedagogical  fame."  He  then  writes 
of  his  experience  in  the  study  of  law.     "  First,"  he  says, 


5s  ©aniel  Mebster 

"you  must  bid  adieu  to  all  hopes  of  meeting  with  a 
single  author  who  pretends  to  elegance  of  style  or  sweet- 
ness of  observation.  The  language  of  the  law  is  dry, 
hard  and  stubborn  as  an  old  maid.  Wounded  Latin 
bleeds  through  every  page,  and  if  Tully  and  Virgil  could 
rise  from  their  graves  they  would  soon  be  at  fisticuffs 
with  Coke,  Hale  and  Blackstone  for  massacring  their 
language.  As  to  the  practice,  I  believe  it  a  settled  mat- 
ter that  the  business  of  an  office  is  conducted  with  the 
very  refuse  and  remnant  of  mankind.  However,  I  will 
not  too  far  abuse  my  own  profession.  It  is  sometimes 
lucrative,  and  if  one  can  keep  up  an  acquaintance  with 
general  literature  in  the  meantime,  the  law  may  help  to 
invigorate  and  unfold  the  powers  of  the  mind." 

When  in  1806,  and  again  in  1S31,  Daniel  visited  the 
town,  he  much  enjoyed  a  call  on  this  schoolmaster  friend. 
Doubtless  Mr.  Cook  showed  him  the  letter  he  had  re- 
ceived from  Jefferson,  in  which  he  had  enclosed  not  only 
a  letter  of  Washington's  announcing  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  by  the  Federal  Conven- 
tion (it  was  offered  merely  for  what  he  asked,  a  speci- 
men of  his  handwriting),  but  had  expressed  his  "every 
wish  for  the  prosperity  of  your  institution.' '  Must  he 
not  also  have  showed  the  letter  of  John  Adams,  which 
had  praised  one  of  his  pupils? 

In  this  visit  of  1831  the  little  schoolhouse  was  still 
standing  by  the  new  one,  although  the  following  year  it 
was  taken  down  by  Jasper  Pingree  (father  of  Governor 
Pingree,  of  Michigan)  and  moved  to  another  place  for 
other  use.     There  it  remained  until  destroyed  by  fire  in 


as  a  Schoolmaster  59 


1S63.     Dr.  Andrew  P.  Peabody,  of  Cambridge,  Mass., 
tells  of  seeing  the  little  building  on  wheels,  or  rollers, 
ready  to  be  moved  on  a  Monday  when  he  was  asked  to 
hold  a  service  in  it  the  preceding  Sunday  afternoon.     We 
are  told  that  Emerson  preached  in  the  little  building  when 
in  the  village.     All  this  must  have  interested  the  great 
statesman  in  this  leisure  hour  from  his   public  duties. 
Since  his  life  there  he  had  known  great  honors  and  great 
sorrow.     He  had  written  more  poetry,  but  it  was  of  a 
different  order,  as  seen  in  the  verses  written  in  1825  on 
the  death  of  his  infant  son  Charles.      (See  Appendix,  2.) 
In  this  visit  Webster's  thought  turned   much  to   the 
natural  scenery  of  the  region  round  about.      Being  at 
Dr.  Griswold's  to  tea,  he  exclaimed  all  at  once,  "Your 
Fryeburg  scenery  is  striking,  grand  and  beautiful ;  when 
I  was  here  acting  as  pedagogue,  I  suppose  I  was  ambi- 
tious, and  didn't  notice  it  1 "     Yet  the  nature  that  had 
then  reached  the  height  of  its  fame— having  just  made 
the  great  reply  to  Hayne's  speech— must  have  felt  in  youth 
the  beautiful,  inspiring  view  from  old  Jockey  Cap  and 
Pine  Hill,  must  have  watched  the  flow  of  the  Saco  River 
as  it  wound  through  the  town,  and  have  dreamed  by  the 
historic  banks  of  Lovewell's  pond.     He  could  not  have 
been  insensible  to  beauties  which  Longfellow,  Whittier 
and  Enoch  Lincoln  have  put  in  verse,  which  William 
D.  Howells  has  expressed  in  prose  (in  A  Modern  In- 
stance), and  which  Arlo  Bates— once  a  teacher  in  the 
Academy,— John  Colby,  Kate  Putnam  Osgood,  Caroline 
Dana  Howe,  Rebecca  Perley  Reed  and  others  have  re- 
flected in  their  writings.     But  whether  he  loved  nature 


6o  Daniel  Webster 

as  fervently  as  in  the  later  years,  we  know  that  he  always 
loved  Fryeburg. 

Upon  being  invited  to  the  Centennial  Anniversary  of 
LovewelPs  Fight,  which  the  town  celebrated  in  May, 
1825,  he  expressed  regret  that  his  engagements  in  Wash- 
ington would  prevent  his  attendance  ;  but  he  added,  "I 
always  hear  with  much  satisfaction  of  the  prosperity  of 
your  interesting  village,  and  am  gratified  at  this  proof 
that  I  am  not  forgotten  by  those  for  whom  I  retain,  on 
my  part,  an  undiminished  regard."  He  then  declared 
that  they  were  "  very  right"  in  supposing  that  a  visit  to 
their  town  would  give  him  pleasure.  For  several  years 
he  said  he  had  intended  to  make  such  a  visit,  and  still 
hoped  to  do  so.  "  I  pray  you,"  he  concluded,  "  to  make 
my  remembrance  and  respects  acceptable  to  friends  and 
neighbors,  and  allow  me  to  offer  to  yourselves  as  to  old 
and  well-remembered  friends,  the  assurance  of  my  sin- 
cere esteem"  (from  a  letter  to  Eben  Fessenden,  Jr.,  and 
Robert  Bradley,  Esq.)  .  Had  he  been  at  the  celebration 
he  would  have  heard  sung  to  the  air  of  "  Bruce' s  Ad- 
dress" a  poem  of  six  verses,  written  for  the  occasion  by 
a  youth  of  eighteen,  afterwards  known  to  the  world  as 
Henry  W.  Longfellow,  which  ended  thus  : — 

And  the  story  of  that  day 
Shall  not  pass  from  earth  away, 
Nor  the  blighting  of  decay 

Waste  our  liberty ; 
But,  within  the  river's  sweep, 
Long  in  peace  our  vale  shall  sleep, 
And  free  hearts  the  record  keep 

Of  this  Jubilee. 


as  a  Scboolmaster  61 

He  doubtless  would  have  met  this  young  poet  at  the 
social  levee  at  Judge  Dana's  if  not  at  the  ball,  which  he 
is  said  to  have  attended  at  the  Oxford  House.  Perhaps 
he  had  read  in  the  Portland  Gazette  what  he  had 
written  five  years  before  on  "  The  Battle  of  Lovewell's 
Pond,"  which,  so  far  as  known,  were  his  first  verses 
(Appendix,  3). 

At  the  Semi-centennial  Anniversary  of  the  Academy 
in  August  1842,  Webster  again  sent  from  Washington 
cordial  words  of  remembrance  and  friendly  greetings : 
"Long  may  your  Institution  flourish  in  usefulness,  and 
long  may  health  and  peace,  prosperity  and  happiness,  be 
the  lot  of  the  village."  Referring  to  his  "  attempt  at 
instructing  youth"  there,  he  said  :  "  However  successful 
or  unsuccessful  I  may  have  been  in  teaching  others,  it 
was  not  lost  time  in  regard  to  my  own  progress.  I 
found  in  Fryeburg,  even  at  that  early  day,  most  of  the 
elements  of  a  happy  New  England  village,  which  Dr. 
Belknap  has  described, — a  learned,  amiable  and  excel- 
lent minister  of  the  gospel,  educated  and  respectable 
gentlemen  of  the  other  professions,  a  small  but  well- 
selected  library,  with  which  I  cultivated  a  useful  acquaint- 
ance, and  a  general  circle  of  friendly  and  agreeable 
acquaintances."  He  confessed  that  to  the  recollection 
of  such  things  and  such  scenes  it  was  impossible  to 
revert  without  feelings  both  of  gratitude  and  pleasure. 
"To  all  who  may  remember  me,"  he  concludes,  "I 
pray  you  to  give  my  cordial  salutations,  and  if  there  be 
among  you  any  of  those  who  sought  to  learn  Latin  or 
Greek,  or  to  read  or  cipher,  under  my  veteran  tuition, 


62  Baniel  Webster 

please  say  to  them  that  I  trust  their  children  have  had 
better  instruction  than  their  fathers." 

On  that  occasion  Rev.  Samuel  Souther,  in  his  original 
poem  on  Memory,  thus  referred  to  the  school  and  its 
master : — 

Not  few  can  doubtless  well  remember  when 

The  school  first  met,  though  fifty  years  since  then 

Have  blanched  their  locks,  and  on  their  cheeks  which  glowed 

Erstwhile  with  ruddy  youth,  time's  wrinkle  strowed  ; 

With  them  let's  turn  our  eyes,  and,  as  we  can, 

Recall  the  time  when  first  the  school  began. 

And  through  remembrance,  viewed  as  through  a  glass, 

See  years  long  gone  again  before  us  pass. 

The  humble  building  stands  near  yonder  hill, 

Whose  pines  above,  around,  the  prospect  fill ; 

But  can  that  edifice,  so  humble,  be 

The  starting  point  of  our  Academy? 

*         *         *         *         *         * 
Turn  round  the  glass  ;  another  teacher  now, 
Far  younger,  fills  the  chair.     Ah  !  mark  that  brow. 
That  eagle  eye, — have  you  not  seen  it  flash 
In  scenes  of  later  life,  when,  'mid  the  clash 
Of  high  and  fierce  debate,  he  met  his  foe 
In  mighty  conflict?     Then  indeed  you  know 
That  this  is  Webster,  yet  unknown  to  fame, 
Before  the  dawn  of  his  illustrious  name. 

This  reminds  one  of  what  H.  Bernard  Carpenter  has 
said  of  the  schoolmaster  in  one  of  his  verses  on  Frye- 
burg,  as  found  in  the  Lewis  Memorial : — 

Twenty  rich  summers  glowed  along  his  veins, 
When  from  New  Hampshire's  high-born  hills  a  youth 
Came  down — a  seeker  and  a  sayer  of  sooth — 
To  stand  beneath  these  elms,  and  shake  the  reins 


as  a  Schoolmaster  63 

That  guide  the  heart  of  boyhood's  fiery  prime. 

They  called  him  Daniel  Webster  ;  and  the  chime 

Measured  the  sliding  hours  with  smooth,  slow  stroke, 

While  he  sat  registering  the  deed,  and  wrought 

As  though  the  wide  world  watched  him,  swift  in  thought, 

But  slow  in  speech ;  and  yet  when  once  he  spoke, 

Then  an  archangel  taught. 

At  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  the  settlement  of  the 
town,  held  in  the  Chautauqua  grounds  in  1863,  Webster's 
voice  was  silent  in  death ;  but  among  the  toasts  of  the 
evening  levee  held  by  the  Webster  Association  of  the 
Academy  was,  "  The  memory  of  Webster — it  still  lives." 
Upon  his  death,  eleven  years  before,  the  trustees  had 
showed  their  appreciation  of  their  early  teacher  by  calling 
a  special  meeting  to  express  publicly  the  sense  of  loss  the 
world  had  sustained. 

Being  in  Conway  the  year  before  he  died,  Webster 
had  turned  to  the  old  town  and  its  people.  In  a  letter 
to  Robert  Bradley,  Esq.,  August  17,  1851  (now  in 
the  possession  of  his  daughter),  he  is  introducing  his 
son  Fletcher  and  a  New  York  friend,  R.  M.  Blatchford, 
Esq.  "  They  drive  down  to  Fryeburg,"  he  wrote, 
"this  afternoon  to  see  a  place  where  I  lived  for  some 
time  and  the  good  people  who  remain  who  were  then 
my  friends.' '  While  he  was  there  several  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  Academy  went  to  call  on  him.  Upon 
hearing  of  an  effort  to  build  a  new  school  building,  he 
said  that  if  his  official  duties  would  allow  he  would  be 
present  at  the  dedication  to  give  the  opening  address, 
but  death  prevented.  At  this  time  he  made  inquiries 
for  citizens  of  the  village  he  had  known,  among  them 


64  2)aniel  Mebeter 

being  Lieutenant  James  Walker,  to  whom  he  had  sold 
the  horse  that  had  borne  him  first  to  Fryeburg. 

While  studying  with  Mr.  Thompson,  the  young 
Daniel  often  despaired  of  ever  making  himself  a  lawyer  ; 
he  even  thought  seriously  of  going  back  to  school-teach- 
ing. But  he  persevered,  even  though  he  was  "  put  to 
study  in  the  old  way, — that  is,  the  hardest  books  first,  " — 
and  at  last  in  July,  1804,  he  found  himself  in  the  office 
of  Christopher  Gore,  in  Boston,  laying  further  founda- 
tion for  his  great  career.  He  never  taught  school  again  ; 
but  it  is  safe  to  presume  that  he  ever  had  a  great 
sympathy  for  all  school-teachers  for  what  he  had  experi- 
enced. Once,  in  referring  to  his  old  teachers,  he 
mentions  Mr.  Joseph  S.  Buckminster,  of  the  Exeter 
Academy,  where,  when  a  boy  of  fourteen,  he  had  spent 
nine  months.  He  refers  especially  to  his  patience  with 
him  in  the  difficulty  he  had  in  speaking  before  the 
school.  "  The  kind  and  excellent  Buckminster,"  he 
says,  especially  sought  to  persuade  him  to  perform  the 
exercise  of  declamation  like  other  boys,  but  he  could 
not  do  it.  Many  a  piece  did  he  say  over  and  over 
again  in  his  own  room,  but  when  all  eyes  were  turned 
upon  him  in  school  as  his  name  was  called  he  could 
not  raise  himself  from  his  seat.  "  Sometimes  the 
masters  frowned,  sometimes  they  smiled,"  he  says,  "  but 
Mr.  Buckminster  always  pressed  and  entreated  with  the 
most  winning  kindness  "  for  him  "  to  venture  only  once  ;" 
but  he  could  not  command  sufficient  resolution,  and 
when  the  occasion  was  over  he  went  home  and  "  wept 
tears  of    bitter    mortification."     At    another  time  he  is 


as  a  Scboolmaster  65 

writing  from  Marshfield — 1851 — to  William  Sweatt  of 
his  early  schoolmasters.  The  thought  makes  him  phil- 
osophical. "  We  belong  to  the  past  and  to  the  future 
as  well  as  to  the  present,"  he  concludes.  ...  "  God 
has  given  me  much  to  enjoy  in  this  life,  and  holden  out 
hopes  of  a  better  life  to  come." 

It  is  possible  he  could  not  have  written  that  touching 
letter  to  his  old  teacher,  Master  Tappan,  only  three 
months  before  his  death  (July,  1852)  if  he  had  not 
known  the  joy  of  a  teacher's  heart  in  being  loved  and 
appreciated.  He  had  learned  through  the  public  press 
that  his  "old  schoolmaster,"  as  he  calls  him,  still  en- 
joyed life,  with  his  u  mental  faculties  bright  and  vivid." 
Having  just  returned  from  the  scenes  of  his  boyhood 
days,  "  from  the  very  spot  in  which  he  had  taught  him," 
where  the  river  and  the  hills  were  as  beautiful  as  ever, 
but  where  the  graves  of  his  father  and  mother,  brothers, 
sisters  and  early  friends  gave  it,  to  him,  "something  of 
the  appearance  of  a  city  of  the  dead,"  his  letter  is  tinged 
with  sadness  ;  yet  hope  arises,  and  he  continues  :  "  But 
let  us  not  repine.  You  have  lived  long  and  my  life 
already  is  not  shorthand  we  have  both  much  to  be  thank- 
ful for.  Two  or  three  persons  are  still  living  who,  like 
myself,  were  brought  up  sub  tua  ferula.  They  remem- 
ber Master  Tappan."  Then  he  closes  in  a  strain  all  the 
more  tender,  we  are  sure,  for  his  own  experience. 
"  And  now,  my  good  old  master,  receive  a  renewed  trib- 
ute of  affectionate  regard  from  your  grateful  pupil ;  with 
his  wishes  and  prayers  for  your  happiness  in  all  that 
remains  to  you  of  this  life,  and  more  especially  for  your 


ee  Daniel  Webster 

rich  participation  hereafter,  in  the  more  durable  riches 
of  righteousness." 

And  so  through  this  Fryeburg  experience,  Daniel 
Webster,  whom  America  loves  to  honor  as  her  great 
expounder  of  the  Constitution,  has  linked  himself  to  the 
universal  brotherhood  of  teachers. 

That  this  has  become  more  than  a  local  recognition, 
was  manifested  in  the  centennial  observance  of  the 
schoolmastership  at  Fryeburg,  as  held  in  the  old  town 
in  1902.  Prominent  public  speakers,  members  of  the 
Academy  Alumni  of  national  reputation,  honored  trus- 
tees and  pupils  from  the  town  and  from  abroad,  all  con- 
tributed to  the  fine  results  obtained.  Senator  George 
F.  Hoar,  in  his  letter  of  regret  that  he  could  not  be  pres- 
ent, voiced  the  opinion  of  all  when  he  said  that  no  man 
could  recall  the  noble  story  of  Webster's  youth  "with- 
out a  little  mist  gathering  in  his  eyes."  "It  lends  a 
dignity  to  the  streets  of  your  town,"  he  wrote,  "that 
his  feet  have  been  familiar  to  them." 

THE    END. 


HppenMx 


1! 


Tjsr  ffiB>  cmmw  m  mum  me 
emr/oH  was  act/vs/tea. 


©ration  i 

Delivered  in  Fryeburg,  Maine,  July  4,  ^02. 

Fellow-Citizens  :— 

It  is  at  the  season  when  Nature  hath  assumed  her  loveliest 
apparel  that  the  American  people  assemble  in  their  several 
temples  to  celebrate  the  birthday  of  their  nation.  Arrayed  in 
all  the  beauties  of  the  year,  the  Fourth  of  July  once  more  visits 
us  Green  fields  and  a  ripening  harvest  proclaim  it,  a  bright 
sun  cheers  it,  and  the  hearts  of  freemen  bid  it  welcome.  Illus- 
trious spectacle  !  Six  millions  of  people  this  day  surround  their 
altars,  and  unite  in  an  address  to  Heaven  for  the  preservation 
of  their  rights.  Every  rank  and  every  age  imbibes  the  general 
spirit.  From  the  lisping  inhabitant  of  the  cradle  to  the  aged 
warrior  whose  gray  hairs  are  fast  sinking  in  the  western 
horizon  of  life,  every  voice  is,  this  day,  tuned  to  the  accents  of 
Liberty!    Washington!     My  Country! 

Festivals  established  by  the  world  have  been  numerous.  The 
coronation  of  a  king,  the  birth  of  a  prince,  the  marriage  of  a 
princess,  have  often  called  wondering  crowds  together.  Cities 
and  nations  agree  to  celebrate  the  event  which  raises  one  mortal 
man  above  their  heads,  and  beings  called  men  stand  astonished 
and  aghast  while  the  pageantry  of  a  monarch  or  the  jewelled 
grandeur  of  a  queen  poses  before  them.  Such  a  festival,  how- 
ever, as  the  Fourth  of  July  is  to  America,  is  not  found  in  his- 
tory :  a  festival  designed  for  solemn  reflection  on  the  great 
events  that  have  happened  to  us;  a  festival  in  which  freedom 
receives  a  nation's  homage,  and  Heaven  is  greeted  with  incense 
from  ten  thousand  hearts. 

In  the  present  situation  of  our  country,  it  is,  my  respected 
fellow-citizens,  matter  of  high  joy  and  congratulation  that 
there  is  one  day  in  the  year  on  which  men  of  different  princi- 
ples and  different  opinions  can  associate  together.  The  Fourth 
of  Tuly  is  not  an  occasion  to  compass  sea  and  land  to  make 
proselytes.  The  good  sense  and  the  good  nature  which  yet 
remain  among  us  will,  we  trust,  prevail  on  this  day,  and  be 
sufficient  to  chain,  at  least  for  a  season,  that  untamed  monster, 
Party  Spirit :  and  would  to  God  that  it  might  be  chained  tor- 


70  Bppenfcii 


ever,  that,  as*  we  have  but  one  interest,  we  might  have  but  one 
heart  and  one  mind  ! 

You  have  hitherto,  fellow-citizens,  on  occasions  of  this  kind, 
been  entertained  with  the  discussion  of  national  questions  ;  with 
inquiries  into  the  true  principles  of  government ;  with  recapitu- 
lations of  the  War ;  with  speculations  on  the  causes  of  our 
Revolution,  and  on  its  consequences-  to  ourselves  and  to  the 
world.  Leaving  these  subjects,  it  shall  be  the  ambition  of  the 
speaker  of  this  day  to  present  such  a  view  of  your  Constitution 
and  your  Union  as  shall  convince  you  that  you  have  nothing  to 
hope  from  a  change. 

This  age  has  been  correctly  denominated  an  age  of  experi- 
ments. Innovation  is  the  idol  of  the  times.  The  human  mind 
seems  to  have  burst  its  ancient  limits,  and  to  be  traveling  over 
the  face  of  the  material  and  intellectual  creation  in  search  of 
improvement.  The  world  hath  become  like  a  fickle  lover,  in 
whom  every  new  face  inspires  a  new  passion.  In  this  rage  for 
novelty  many  things  are  made  better,  and  many  things  are 
made  worse.  Old  errors  are  discarded,  and  new  errors  are 
embraced.  Governments  feel  the  same  effects  from  this  spirit 
as  everything  else.  Some,  like  our  own,  grow  into  beauty  and 
excellence,  while  others  sink  still  deeper  into  deformity  and 
wretchedness.  The  experience  of  all  ages  will  bear  us  out  in 
saying,  that  alterations  of  political  systems  are  always  attended 
with  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  danger.  They  ought,  therefore, 
never  to  be  undertaken  unless  the  evil  complained  of  be  really 
felt,  and  the  prospect  of  a  remedy  clearly  seen.  The  politician 
that  undertakes  to  improve  a  Constitution  with  as  little  thought 
as  a  farmer  sets  about  mending  his  plow,  is  no  master  of  his 
trade.  If  that  Constitution  be  a  systematic  one,  if  it  be  a  free 
one,  its  parts  are  so  necessarily  connected  that  an  alteration  in 
one  will  work  an  alteration  in  all ;  and  this  cobbler,  however 
pure  and  honest  his  intentions,  will,  in  the  end,  find  that  what 
came  to  his  hands  a  fair  and  lovely  fabric  goes  from  them  a 
miserable  piece  of  patchwork. 

Nor  are  great  and  striking  alterations  alone  to  be  shunned. 


Hppen&ti  71 


A  succession  of  small  changes,  a  perpetual  tampering  with 
minute  parts,  steal  away  the  breath  though  they  leave  the  body ; 
for  it  is  true  that  a  government  may  lose  all  its  real  character, 
its  genius  and  its  temper,  without  losing  its  appearance.  You 
may  have  a  despotism  under  the  name  of  a  republic.  You 
may  look  on  a  government  and  see  it  possess  all  the  external 
essential  modes  of  freedom,  and  yet  see  nothing  of  the  essence, 
the  vitality,  of  freedom  in  it :  just  as  you  may  behold  Wash- 
ington or  Franklin  in  waxwork;  the  form  is  perfect,  but  the 
spirit,  the  life,  is  not  there. 

The  first  thing  to  be  said  in  favor  of  our  system  of  govern- 
ment is  that  it  is  truly  and  genuinely  free,  and  the  man  has  a 
base  and  slavish  heart  that  will  call  any  government  good  that 
is  not  free.  If  there  be,  at  this  day,  any  advocate  for  arbitrary 
power,  we  wish  him  the  happiness  of  living  under  a  govern- 
ment of  his  choice.  If  he  is  in  love  with  chains,  we  would  not 
deny  him  the  gratification  of  his  passion.  Despotism  is  the 
point  where  everything  bad  centers,  and  from  which  everything 
good  departs.  As  far  as  a  government  is  distant  from  this 
point,  so  far  it  is  good ;  in  proportion  as  it  approaches  towards 
this,  in  the  same  proportion  it  is  detestable.  In  all  other 
forms  there  is  something  tolerable  to  be  found ;  in  despotism 
there  is  nothing.  Other  systems  have  some  amiable  features, 
some  right  principles,  mingled  with  their  errors ;  despotism  is 
all  error.  It  is  a  dark  and  cheerless  void,  over  which  the  eye 
wanders  in  vain  in  search  of  anything  lovely  or  attractive. 

The  true  definition  of  despotism  is  government  without  law. 
It  may  exist,  therefore,  in  the  hands  of  many  as  well  as  of  one. 
Rebellions  are  despotisms ;  factions  are  despotisms ;  loose 
democracies  are  despotism*.  These  are  a  thousand  times  more 
dreadful  than  the  concentration  of  all  power  in  the  hands  of  a 
single  tyrant.  The  despotism  of  one  man  is  like  the  thunder- 
bolt, which  falls  here  and  there,  scorching  and  consuming  the 
individual  on  whom  it  lights  ;  but  popular  commotion,  the  des- 
potism of  a  mob,  is  an  earthquake,  which  in  one  moment 
swallows  up   everything.     It  is  the  excellence  of   our  govern- 


72  Hppenbir 


ment  that  it  is  placed  in  a  proper  medium  between  these  two 
extremes, — that  it  is  equally  distant  from  mobs  and  from 
thrones. 

In  the  next  place  our  government  is  good  because  it  is  prac- 
tical. It  is  not  the  sick  offspring  of  closet  philosophy.  It  did 
not  rise,  vaporous  and  evanescent,  from  the  brains  of  Rousseau 
and  Godwin,  like  a  mist  from  the  ocean.  It  is  the  production 
of  men  of  business,  of  experience,  and  of  wisdom.  It  is  suited 
to  what  man  is,  and  what  it  is  in  the  power  of  good  laws  to 
make  him.  Its  object — the  just  object  of  all  governments — is 
to  secure  and  protect  the  weak  against  the  strong,  to  unite  the 
force  of  the  whole  community  against  the  violence  of  oppres- 
sors. Its  power  is  the  power  of  the  nation  ;  its  will  is  the  will 
of  the  people.  It  is  not  an  awkward,  unshapely  machine 
which  the  people  cannot  use  when  they  have  made  it,  nor  is  it 
so  dark  and  complicated  that  it  is  the  labor  of  one's  life  to  in- 
vestigate and  understand  it.  All  are  capable  of  comprehending 
its  principles  and  its  operations.  It  admits,  too,  of  a  change 
of  men  and  of  measures.  At  the  will  of  a  majority,  we  have 
seen  the  government  of  the  nation  pass  from  the  hands  of  one 
description  of  men  into  those  of  another.  Of  the  comparative 
merits  of  those  different  men,  of  their  honesty,  their  talents, 
their  patriotism,  we  have  here  nothing  to  say.  That  subject 
we  leave  to  be  decided  before  the  impartial  tribunal  of  pos- 
terity. The  fact  of  a  change  of  rulers,  however,  proves  that  the 
government  is  manageable,  that  it  can  in  all  cases  be  made  to 
comply  with  the  public  will.  It  is,  too,  an  equal  government. 
It  rejects  principalities  and  powers.  It  demolishes  all  the  arti- 
ficial distinctions  which  pride  and  ambition  create.  It  is  en- 
cumbered with  no  lazy  load  of  hereditary  aristocracy.  It 
clothes  no  one  with  the  attributes  of  God ;  it  sinks  no  one  to  a 
level  with  brutes  :  yet  it  admits  those  distinctions  in  society 
which  are  natural  and  necessary.  The  correct  expression  of 
our  Bill  of  Rights  is  that  men  are  born  equal.  It  then  rests 
with  themselves  to  maintain  their  equality  by  their  worth. 
The  illustrious  framers  of  our  system,  in  all   the  sternness  of 


BppenMi  73 


republicanism,  rejected  all  nobility  but  the  nobility  of  talents, 
all  majority  but  the  majority  of  virtue. 

Lastly,  the  government  is  one  of  our  choice ;  not  dictated  to 
us  by  an  imperious  Chief  Consul,  like  the  government  of  Hol- 
land and  Switzerland ;  not  taught  us  by  the  philosophers,  nor 
graciously  brought  to  us  on  the  bayonets  of  our  magnanimous 
sister  republic  on  the  other  side  the  ocean.  It  was  framed  by 
our  fathers  for  themselves  and  for  their  children.  Far  the 
greater  portion  of  mankind  submit  to  usurped  authority,  and 
pay  humble  obedience  to  self-created  law-givers :  not  that  obe- 
dience of  the  heart  which  a  good  citizen  will  yield  to  good 
laws,  but  the  obedience  which  a  harnessed  horse  pays  his 
driver, — an  obedience  begotten  by  correction  and  stripes. 

The  American  Constitution  is  the  purchase  of  American 
valor.  It  is  the  rich  prize  that  rewards  the  toil  of  eight  years 
of  war  and  of  blood  :  and  what  is  all  the  pomp  of  military 
glory,  what  are  victories,  what  are  armies  subdued,  fleets  cap- 
tured, colors  taken,  unless  they  end  in  the  establishment  of 
wise  laws  and  national  happiness  ?  Our  Revolution  is  not  more 
renowned  for  the  brilliancy  of  its  scenes  than  for  the  benefit  of 
its  consequences.  The  Constitution  is  the  great  memorial  of 
the  deeds  of  our  ancestors.  On  the  pillars  and  on  the  arches 
of  that  dome  their  names  are  written  and  their  achievements 
recorded.  While  that  lasts,  while  a  single  page  or  a  single 
article  can  be  found,  it  will  carry  down  the  record  to  futm-e 
ages.  It  will  teach  mankind  that  glory,  empty,  tinkling  glory, 
was  not  the  object  for  which  Americans  fought.  Great  Britain 
had  carried  the  fame  of  her  arms  far  and  wide.  She  had 
humbled  France  and  Spain  ;  she  had  reached  her  arm  across  the 
Eastern  Continent,  and  given  laws  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges. 
A  few  scattered  colonists  did  not  rise  up  to  contend  with  such 
a  nation  for  mere  renown.  They  had  a  nobler  object,  and  in 
pursuit  of  that  object  they  manifested  a  courage,  constancy, 
and  union,  that  deserve  to  be  celebrated  by  poets  and  historians 
while  language  lasts. 

The  valor  of  America  was  not  a  transient,  glimmering  ray 


74  Bppenbii 


shot  forth  from  the  impulse  of  momentary  resentment.  Against 
unjust  and  arbitrary  laws  she  rose  with  determined,  unalterable 
spirit.  Like  the  rising  sun,  clouds  and  mists  hung  around  her, 
but  her  course,  like  his,  brightened  as  she  proceeded.  Valor, 
however,  displayed  in  combat,  is  a  less  remarkable  trait  in  the 
character  of  our  countrymen  than  the  wisdom  manifested  when 
the  combat  was  over.  All  countries  and  all  ages  produce 
warriors,  but  rare  are  the  instances  in  which  men  sit  down 
coolly  at  the  close  of  their  labors  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  them. 
Having  destroyed  one  despotism,  nations  generally  create 
another;  having  rejected  the  dominion  of  one  tyrant,  they 
make  another  for  themselves.  England  beheaded  her  Charles, 
but  crowned  her  Cromwell.  France  guillotined  her  Louises, 
but  obeys  her  Bonapartes.  Thanks  to  God,  neither  foreign 
nor  domestic  usurpation  nourishes  on  our  soil! 

Having  thus,  fellow-citizens,  surveyed  the  principal  features 
of  our  excellent  Constitution,  and  paid  an  inadequate  tribute  to 
the  wisdom  which  produced  it,  let  us  consider  seriously  the 
means  of  its  preservation.  To  perpetuate  the  government  we 
must  cherish  the  love  of  it.  One  chief  pillar  in  the  repub- 
lican fabric  is  the  spirit  of  patriotism.  But  patriotism  hath,  in 
these  days,  become  a  good  deal  questionable.  It  hath  been  so 
often  counterfeited  that  even  the  genuine  coin  doth  not  pass 
without  suspicion.  If  one  proclaims  himself  a  patriot,  this  un- 
charitable, misjudging  world  is  pretty  likely  to  set  him  down 
for  a  knave,  and  it  is  pretty  likely  to  be  right  in  this  opinion. 
The  rage  for  being  patriots  hath  really  so  much  of  the  ridicu- 
lous in  it  that  it  is  difficult  to  treat  it  seriously.  The  preach- 
ing of  politics  hath  become  a  trade,  and  there  are  many  who 
leave  all  other  trades  to  follow  it.  Benevolent,  disinterested 
men  !  With  Scriptural  devotion  they  forsake  houses  and  lands, 
father  and  mother,  wife  and  children,  and  wander  up  and  down 
the  community  to  teach  mankind  that  their  rulers  oppress 
them !  About  the  time  when  it  was  fashionable  in  France  to 
cut  off  men's  heads  as  we  lop  away  superfluous  sprouts  from 
our  apple  trees,   the  public  attention  was  excited  by  a  certain 


HppenMx  75 


monkey  that  had  been  taught  to  act  the  part  of  a  patriot  to 
great  perfection.  If  you  pointed  at  him,  says  the  historian, 
and  called  him  an  aristocrat  or  a  monarchist,  he  would  fly  at 
you  with  great  rage  and  violence  ;  but  if  you  would  do  him  the 
justice  to  call  him  a  good  patriot,  he  manifested  every  mark  of 
joy  and  satisfaction.  But,  though  the  whole  French  nation 
gazed  at  this  animal  as  a  miracle,  he  was,  after  all,  no  very 
strange  sight.  There  are,  in  all  countries,  a  great  many 
monkeys  who  wish  to  be  thought  patriots,  and  a  great  many 
others  who  believe  them  such.  But,  because  we  are  often  de- 
ceived by  appearances,  let  us  not  believe  that  the  reality  does 
not  exist.  If  our  faith  is  ever  shaken,  if  the  crowd  of  hypo- 
critical demagogues  lead  us  to  doubt,  we  will  remember  Wash- 
ington and  be  convinced ;  we  will  cast  our  eyes  around  us  on 
those  who  have  toiled  and  fought  and  bled  for  their  country, 
and  we  will  be  persuaded  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  real 
patriotism,  and  that  it  is  one  of  the  purest  and  noblest  senti- 
ments that  can  warm  the  heart  of  man. 

To  preserve  the  government  we  must  also  preserve  a  correct 
and  energetic  tone  of  morals.  After  all  that  can  be  said,  the 
truth  is  that  liberty  consists  more  in  the  habits  of  the  people 
than  in  anything  else.  When  the  public  mind  becomes  vitiated 
and  depraved,  every  attempt  to  preserve  it  is  vain.  Laws  are 
then  a  nullity,  and  Constitutions  waste  paper.  There  are 
always  men  wicked  enough  to  go  any  length  in  the  pursuit  of 
power,  if  they  can  find  others  wicked  enough  to  support  them. 
They  regard  not  paper  and  parchment.  Can  you  stop  the  prog- 
ress of  a  usurper  by  opposing  to  him  the  laws  of  his  country? 
then  you  may  check  the  careering  winds  or  stay  the  lightning 
with  a  song.  No.  Ambitious  men  must  be  restrained  by  the 
public  morality :  when  they  rise  up  to  do  evil,  they  must  find 
themselves  standing  alone.  Morality  rests  on  religion.  If 
you  destroy  the  foundation,  the  superstructure  must  fall.  In 
a  world  of  error,  of  temptation,  of  seduction ;  in  a  world 
where  crimes  often  triumph,  and  virtue  is  scourged  with  scor- 
pions,— in  such  a  world,  certainly,  the  hope  of  an  hereafter  is 


76  Hppenbii 


necessary  to  cheer  and  to  animate.  Leave  us,  then,  the  con- 
solations of  religion.  Leave  to  man,  to  frail  and  feeble  man, 
the  comfort  of  knowing  that,  when  he  gratifies  his  immortal 
soul  with  deeds  of  justice,  of  kindness,  and  of  mercy,  he  is 
rescuing  his  happiness  from  final  dissolution  and  laying  it  up  in 
Heaven . 

Our  duty  as  citizens  is  not  a  solitary  one.  It  is  connected 
with  all  the  duties  that  belong  to  us  as  men.  The  civil,  the 
social,  the  Christian  virtues  are  requisite  to  render  us  worthy 
the  continuation  of  that  government  which  is  the  freest  on 
earth.  Yes,  though  the  world  should  hear  me,  though  I  could 
fancy  myself  standing  in  the  congregation  of  all  nations,  I 
would  say :  Americans,  you  are  the  most  privileged  people 
that  the  sun  shines  on.  The  salutary  influences  of  your  climate 
are  inferior  to  the  salutary  influences  of  your  laws.  Your  soil, 
rich  to  a  proverb,  is  less  rich  than  your  Constitution.  Your 
rivers,  large  as  the  oceans  of  the  Old  World,  are  less  copious 
than  the  streams  of  social  happiness  which  flow  around  you. 
Your  air  is  not  purer  than  your  civil  liberty,  and  your  hills, 
though  high  as  heaven  and  deep  as  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 
are  less  exalted  and  less  firmly  founded  than  that  benign  and 
everlasting  religion  which  blesses  you  and  shall  bless  your  off- 
spring. Amidst  these  profuse  blessings  of  nature  and  of 
Providence,  beware  !  Standing  in  this  place,  sacred  to  truth, 
I  dare  not  undertake  to  assure  you  that  your  liberties  and  your 
happiness  may  not  be  lost.  Men  are  subject  to  men's  misfor- 
tunes. If  an  angel  should  be  winged  from  Heaven  on  an 
errand  of  mercy  to  our  country,  the  first  accents  that  would 
glow  on  his  lips  would  be,  Beware  !  be  cautious !  you  have 
everything  to  lose;  you  have  nothing  to  gain.  We  live  under 
the  only  government  that  ever  existed  which  was  framed  by 
the  unrestrained  and  deliberate  consultations  of  the  people. 
Miracles  do  not  cluster.  That  which  has  happened  but  once  in 
six  thousand  years  cannot  be  expected  to  happen  often.  Such 
a  government,  once  gone,  might  leave  a  void  to  be  filled,  for 
ages,  with   revolution    and   tumult,   riot   and  despotism.     The 


Hppen&ti  77 


history  of  the  world  is  before  us.  It  rises  like  an  immense 
column,  on  which  we  may  see  inscribed  the  soundest  maxims 
of  political  experience.  These  maxims  should  be  treasured  in 
our  memories  and  written  on  our  hearts.  Man,  in  all  countries, 
resembles  man.  Wherever  you  find  him,  you  find  human 
nature  in  him  and  human  frailties  about  him.  He  is,  therefore, 
a  proper  pupil  for  the  school  of  experience.  He  should  draw 
wisdom  from  the  example  of  others,— encouragement  from 
their  success,  caution  from  their  misfortunes.  Nations  should 
diligently  keep  their  eye  on  the  nations  that  have  gone  before 
them.  They  should  mark  and  avoid  their  errors,  not  travel  on 
heedlessly  in  the  path  of  danger  and  of  death  while  the  bones 
of  their  perished  predecessors  whiten  around  them.  Our  own 
times  afford  us  lessons  that  admonish  us  both  of  our  duty  and 
our  danger.  We  have  seen  mighty  nations  miserable  in  their 
chains,  more  miserable  when  they  attempted  to  shake  them  off. 
Tortured  and  distracted  beneath  the  lash  of  servitude,  we  have 
seen  them  rise  up  in  indignation  to  assert  the  rights  of  human 
nature;  but,  deceived  by  hypocrites,  cajoled  by  demagogues, 
ruined  by  false  patriots,  overpowered  by  a  resistless  mixed 
multitude  of  knaves  and  fools,  we  have  wept  at  the  wretched 
end  of  all  their  labors.  Tossed  for  ten  years  in  the  crazy 
dreams  of  revolutionary  liberty,  we  have  seen  them  at  last 
awake,  and,  like  the  slave  who  slumbers  on  his  oar  and  dreams 
of  the  happiness  of  his  own  blessed  home,  they  awake  to  find 
themselves  still  in  bondage.  Let  it  not  be  thought  that  we 
advert  to  other  nations  to  triumph  in  their  sufferings  or  mock  at 
their  calamities.  Would  to  God  the  whole  earth  enjoyed  pure 
and  rational  liberty,  that  every  realm  that  the  human  eye  sur- 
veys or  the  human  foot  treads,  were  free!  Wherever  men 
soberly  and  prudently  engage  in  the  pursuit  of  this  object,  our 
prayers  in  their  behalf  shall  ascend  unto  the  Heavens  and  unto 
the  ear  of  Him  who  filleth  them.  Be  they  powerful  or  be 
they  weak,  in  such  a  cause  they  deserve  success.  Yes,  "The 
poorest  being  that  crawls  on  earth,  contending  to  save  itself 
from  injustice  and  oppression,  is  an  object  respectable  in  the 


7S  Hppen&ii 


eyes  of  God  and  man."  Our  purpose  is  only  to  draw  lessons 
of  prudence  from  the  imprudence  of  others,  to  argue  the  neces- 
sity of  virtue  from  the  consequences  of  their  vices. 

Unhappy  Europe !  the  judgment  of  God  rests  hard  upon 
thee.  Thy  sufferings  would  deserve  an  angel's  pity,  if  an 
angel's  tears  could  wash  away  thy  crimes  !  The  Eastern  Con- 
tinent seems  trembling  on  the  brink  of  some  great  catastrophe. 
Convulsions  shake  and  terrors  alarm  it.  Ancient  systems  are 
falling;  works  reared  by  ages  are  crumbling  into  atoms.  Let 
us  humbly  implore  Heaven  that  the  wide-spreading  desolation 
may  never  reach  the  shores  of  our  native  land,  but  let  us  de- 
voutly make  up  our  minds  to  do  our  duty  in  events  that  may 
happen  to  us.  Let  us  cherish  genuine  patriotism.  In  that, 
there  is  a  sort  of  inspiration  that  gives  strength  and  energy 
almost  more  than  human.  When  the  mind  is  attached  to  a 
great  object,  it  grows  to  the  magnitude  of  its  undertaking.  A 
true  patriot,  with  his  eye  and  his  heart  on  the  honor  and  happi- 
ness of  his  country,  hath  an  elevation  of  soul  that  lifts  him 
above  the  rank  of  ordinary  men.  To  common  occurrences  he 
is  indifferent.  Personal  considerations  dwindle  into  nothing,  in 
comparison  with  his  high  sense  of  public  duty.  In  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  fortune,  he  leans  with  pleasure  on  the  protection 
of  Providence  and  on  the  dignity  and  composure  of  his  own 
mind.  While  his  country  enjoys  peace,  he  rejoices  and  is 
thankful ;  and,  if  it  be  in  the  counsel  of  Heaven  to  send  the 
storm  and  the  tempest,  his  bosom  proudly  swells  against  the 
rage  that  assaults  it.  Above  fear,  above  danger,  he  feels  that 
the  last  end  ivhich  can  happen  to  any  man  never  comes  too  soon, 
if  he  falls  in  defense  of  the  lazus  and  liberties  of  his  country. 


HppenMi  79 


Webster's  poem  n. 

ON   THE    DEATH    OF   HIS    INFANT    SON   CHARLES 

[Written  in  1S25.] 

My  son,  thou  wast  my  heart's  delight, 

Thy  morn  of  life  was  gay  and  cheery ; 
That  morn  has  rushed  to  sudden  night, 

Thy  father's  house  is  sad  and  dreary. 

I  held  thee  on  my  knee,  my  son, 

And  kissed  thee  laughing,  kissed  thee  weeping. 
But,  ah  !  thy  little  day  is  done  ; 

Thou'rt  with  thine  angel  sister  sleeping. 

The  staff  on  which  my  years  should  lean 
Is  broken  ere  those  years  come  o'er  me. 

My  funeral  rites  thou  shouldst  have  seen, 
But  thou  art  in  the  tomb  before  me. 

Thou  rear'st  to  me  no  filial  stone, 

No  parent's  grave  with  tears  beholdest. 
Thou  art  my  ancestor,  my  son, 

And  stand'st  in  Heaven's  account  the  oldest. 

On  earth  my  lot  was  soonest  cast, 

Thy  generation  after  mine. 
Thou  hast  thy  predecessor  passed  ; 

Earlier  eternity  is  thine. 

I  should  have  set  before  thine  eyes 
The  road  to  Heaven,  and  shown  it  clear; 

But  thou  untaught  spring'st  to  the  skies, 
And  leav'st  thy  teacher  lingering  here. 

Sweet  seraph,  I  would  learn  of  thee, 

And  hasten  to  partake  thy  bliss ; 
And,  oh  !  to  thy  world  welcome  me, 

As  first  I  welcomed  thee  to  this. 


8o  Hppenfcii 


Dear  angel,  thou  art  safe  in  Heaven  ; 

No  prayers  for  thee  need  more  be  said. 
Oh !  let  thy  prayers  for  those  be  given 

Who  oft  have  blessed  thine  infant  head. 

My  father,  I  beheld  thee  born, 

And  led  thy  tottering  steps  with  care. 
Before  me  risen  to  Heaven's  bright  morn, 

My  son,  my  father,  guide  me  there. 

XovewelFs  Jfigbt  m. 

BY    HENRY   W.    LONGFELLOW. 

Many  a  day  and  wasted  year, 
Bright  has  left  its  footsteps  here 
Since  was  broke  the  warrior's  spear, 

And  our  fathers  bled  ; 
Still  the  tall  trees  arching  shake 
Where  the  fleet  deer  by  the  lake, 
As  he  dashed  through  bush  and  brake, 

From  the  hunter  fled. 

In  these  ancient  woods  so  bright, 
That  are  full  of  life  and  light, 
Many  a  dark,  mysterious  rite 

The  stern  warriors  kept ; 
But  their  altars  are  bereft, 
Fallen  to  earth  and  strewn  and  cleft, 
And  to  holier  faith  is  left 

Where  their  fathers  slept. 

From  their  ancient  sepulchres, 
Where,  amid  the  giant  firs, 
Moaning  loud  the  high  wind  stirs, 
Have  the  red  men  gone. 


HppenMx  81 


Towards  the  setting  sun  that  makes 
Bright  our  western  hills  and  lakes, 
Faint  and  few  the  remnant  takes 
Its  sad  journey  on. 

Where  the  Indian  hamlet  stood, 
In  the  interminable  wood, 
Battle  broke  the  solitude, 

And  the  war-cry  rose ; 
Sudden  came  the  straggling  shot 
Where  the  sun  looked  on  the  spot 
That  the  trace  of  war  would  blot 

Ere  the  day's  faint  close. 

Low  the  smoke  of  battle  hung, 
Heavy  down  the  lake  it  swung, 
Till  the  death-wail  loud  was  sung, 

When  the  night-shades  fell; 
And  the  gren  pine,  waving  dark, 
Held  within  its  shattered  bark 
Many  a  lasting  scath  and  mark 

That  a  tale  could  tell. 

And  the  glory  of  that  day 
Shall  not  pass  from  earth  away, 
Nor  the  blighting  of  decay 

Waste  our  liberty ; 
But,  within  the  river's  sweep, 
Long  in  peace  our  vale  shall  sleep, 
And  free  hearts  the  record  keep 

Of  this  jubilee. 


82  Hppen&ii 


poem  iv. 


(Written  and  read  by  Elizabeth  Porter  Gould,  at  Fryeburg,  August  14,  1902.) 
Preluded  with   some  extemporaneous  words  leading   to    the    introductory 
lines  of  "Webster. 

"Health  to  my  friends!  began  my  earliest  song, 
Health  to  my  friends  !  my  latest  shall  prolong; 
Nor  health  alone — be  four  more  blessings  thine, 
Cash  and  the  Fair  One,  Friendship  and  the  Nine. 
Are  these  too  little?     Dost  thou  pant  for  fame? 
Give  him,  ye  Powers,  the  bubble  of  a  name ! 
Ask  all  of  Heaven  an  honest  man  should  dare, 
And  Heaven  will  grant  it,  if  it  hear  my  prayer." 

Thus  wrote  a  youth  of  twenty, 
In  1802. 
I  think  it's  worth  our  reading  now — 
Don't  you? 

And  this  was  not  the  ending 
Of  what  he  said  that  day ; 
This  one  of  many  rhymes  he  wrote — 

His  say 
On  how  the  world  did  look  to  him, 
Whose  eye  of  faith  had  not  grown  dim, 
Whose  ear  still  heard  the  cherubim. 

I  think  'twill  give  him  honor, 

This  1902, 
If  we  a  moment  give  it  now, — 

Don't  you? 

"  'Tis  true,  let  Locke  deny  it  to  the  last, 
Man  has  three  beings,  Present,  Future,  Past. 
We  are,  we  were,  we  shall  be;  this  contains 
The  field  of  all  our  pleasures  and  our  pains. 
Enjoyment  makes  the  present  hour  its  own, 
And  Hope  looks  forward  into  worlds  unknown  ; 


Hppen&ii  s3 


While  backward  turned,  our  thoughts  incessant  stray 

And  'mid  the  fairy  forms  of  memory  play. 

Say,  does  the  present  ill  affect  thee  more 

Than  that  impending  o'er  a  future  hour? 

Or  does  this  moment's  blessing  more  delight 

Than  Hope's  gay  vision  fluttering  in  thy  sight? 

Call  now  the  events  of  former  years  to  view, 

And  live  in  fancy  all  thy  life  anew, 

Do  not  the  things  that  many  years  ago 

Gave  woe  or  joy,  now  give  thee  joy  or  woe? 

In  this  review  as  former  times  pass  by, 

Dost  thou  not  laugh  again,  or  weep  or  sigh? 

Dost  thou  not  change,  as  changing  scenes  advance, 

Mourn  with  a  friend,  or  frolic  at  the  dance? 

With  present  time  thus  Hope  and  Memory  join, 
This  to  bear  back,  and  that  to  extend  the  line." 

Thus  wrote  our  Daniel  Webster, 
In  1802. 
I  think  it's  worth  our  hearing  now — 
Don't  you? 

This  slender  youth  of  twenty, 
So  earnest  and  so  wise, 
Who,  when  he  lived  here  someone  called 

"All-eyes," 
Did  not  forget  to  put  in  rhyme 
The  little  school  which  took  his  time, 
That  Wisdom's  hill  his  "  Zeke"  might  climb. 

He  saw  in  this  loved  brother, 
A  personality  rare, 
Which  he  must  bring,  at  any  cost, 

To  share 
The  education  he  had  won 
Through  father-love  to  seeking  son  ; 
Reward  to  him  was  in   Well  Do?ie. 


84  HppenMi 

To  be  yet  still  more  helpful, 
He  wrote  in  his  own  hand, 
Some  County  Deeds  we  see  to-day, 

That  stand 
As  monuments  of  labor  spent 
In  evenings  which  more  oft  are  lent 
To  friendship's  cheer  or  frolic's  bent. 

Who  can  forget  the  story 
As  told  in  his  own  name, 
When  later  years  had  brought  him  wealth, 

And  fame, 
How  blest  he  was  that  day  in  spring, 
When  his  first  earnings  he  did  bring, 
That  " Zeke"  might  Wisdom's  anthems  sing! 

Three  hundred  fifty  dollars 
Was  salary  for  the  year, 
With  now  and  then  a  present  given 

For  cheer ; 
But  though  the  teaching  was  success, 
And  added  to  his  happiness, 
His  vision  soared.     Hear  what  he  says  : 

"  Six  hours  to  yonder  little  dome  a  day, 
The  rest  to  books,  to  friendship,  and  my  tea; 
And  now  and  then,  as  varying  fancies  choose, 
To  trifle  with  young  Mary  or  the  Muse. 
This  life,  though  pleasant  of  its  kind,  is  yet 
Much  too  inactive;  I'm  resolved  to  quit. 

God  gave  me  pride.     I  thank  Him  ;  if  He  choose 

To  give  me  what  shall  make  that  pride  of  use, 

Chance  and  the  talent,  I'll  adore  His  will; 

If  he  deny  them,  I'll  adore  it  still. 

Now  Hope  leans  forward  on  Life's  slender  line, 

Shows  me  a  doctor,  lawyer  or  divine, 


Bppenbii  §5 


Ardent  springs  forward  to  the  distant  goal, 
But  indecision  clogs  the  eager  soul." 

Thus  wrote  the  Fryeburg  teacher 
In  1802, 
I'm  glad  his  soul  was  thus  revealed — 
Aren't  you? 

For  in  this  revelation, 

Faith  shows  her  blessed  face, 
While  Prophecy,  with  Doubt  and  Hope, 

Has  place, 
For  us  to  see  to-day  fulfilled 
In  act  and  speech,  as  lawyer  willed, 
Or  in  Congressional  halls  instilled. 

But  though  this  deep-souled  nature 
Had  not  yet  found  its  own, 
He  walked  these  streets  with  joyful  heart, 

Alone, 
Or  with  "Maine  misses"  fair  and  gay, 
Who  joined  him  in  the  "balls"  and  play, 
And  felt  his  calm,  majestic  sway. 

But  could  they  understand  him? 
This  serious,  high-born  youth, 
In  wonder  oft  as  to  life's  way, 

In  truth, 
One  who  could  open  school  with  prayer, 
And  lift  a  soul  profound  to  share 
The  atmosphere  of  those  who  dare. 

His  own  deep  joy  in  Nature, 
As  he  these  hills  did  roam, 
Was  tinged  with  thought  of  college  life, 
Of  home, 


S6  Hppen&ti 


Of  worldly  honor,  gift  and  name, 
Which  in  the  after  years  became 
A  hidden  power  for  praise  or  blame. 

'Twas  here  his  Alma  Mater, 
His  Dartmouth  life  so  rich, 
Became  a  temple  of  his  mind, 

In  which 
Was  held  the  fire  to  burst  in  flame 
In  its  own  time  and  make  his  name 
To  rank  with  Dartmouth  and  her  fame. 

'Twas  here  this  youth  of  twenty, 
On  Independence  Day, 
Held  in  the  little  meeting-house 

Full  sway, 
Expounding  truth  which  not  before 
Had  come  so  near  the  nation's  door. 
'Tis  read  to-day  as  classic  lore. 

His  plea  for  Constitution 

To  which  his  thought  did  bow, 
For  yeai;s  did  linger  in  the  town, 

Till  now 
As  "Great  Expounder"  of  its  laws, 
We  claim  him  without  price  or  flaws, 
Whenever  we  his  name  applause. 

With  Jefferson  as  President, 
And  Washington  at  rest ; 
John  Adams  in  his  Quincy  home, 

Time-blest, 
How  good  to  have  a  teacher  say 
The  thought  we  know  as  truth  to-day, 
A  hundred  years  cannot  gainsay! 


Hppen&ii  s7 


For  then,  as  now,  a  teacher 
Was  called  to  be  a  guide 
To  lift  the  soul  to  higher  life, 

Or  tide 
The  waves  of  feeling  and  of  thought 
Which  bound  the  shores  of  mind  when  fraught 
With  depths  of  life  unknown,  unsought. 

Thus  taught  our  Daniel  Webster, 
In  1S02. 
I  think  he's  worth  remembering  here— 
Don't  you? 


o 


Unber 


s9 


A. 

PAGE 

Academy,  Adams          ..... 

31 

Academy,  Fryeburg,  Maine 

.     29 

35,  66 

Adams  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  Revolution 

10 

Adams  Farm,  Quincy,  Mass. 

10,  25 

Adams,  John         ......      9, 

28,  35,  3S 

46,58 

Adams,  Hon.  Charles  Francis     . 

28 

Alden,  John           ...... 

25 

Alden,  Priscilla 

25 

"All-eyes" 

36 

Ames'  Speech 

49 

Antiquarian  Hall 

27 

B. 

Baldwin,  Mrs.  C.  C 

29 

Bancroft,  Dr.  Aaron 

16,  28 

Barrows,  George  B 

46 

Bates,  Arlo 

59 

Belknap,  Dr.         ....... 

61 

Bingham,  Mr.       ...... 

57 

Blackstone's  "  Commentaries  "  . 

49 

Bolingbroke 

19,  22 

Boston           ........ 

10 

53.  54 

Boston  and  Worcester  Railroad  . 

10 

Braddock's  Defeat         ..... 

*4 

Bradley,  John 

51 

Bradley,  Miss        ...... 

37 

Bradley,  Robert 

•  51.  63 

Bradley,  Samuel  A.      .... 

•     37 

»  44'  46 

Braintree,  Mass 

9.  IO>  l3 

.  24>  25 

Bronze  Tablet 

27 

"  Bruce's  Address  " 

60 

Buckminster,  Joseph  S. 

•         64 

C. 

Carpenter,  H.  Bernard         .... 

•  53.  62 

Chandler,  John  (Judge)         .... 

.  n,  26 

90  1Int>ei 

Chandler,  Nat 26 

Chandler,  Rufus .26 

Chapter,  Timothy  Bigelow,  D.  A.  R 27,  28 

"  Chautauqua  Grounds "      .......         63 

Cheyne's  Works  .........         20 

Clark  University,  Worcester 28 

Coke 23 

Conway,  N.  H.     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  46,  63 

Cook,  Amos  J 29,57,58 

Court  House,  Worcester 27 

Cranch,  Richard n,  12,  13,  21,  29 

Crane,  E.  B 27 

Cushing,  Charles 12,  17,  21,  23,  29 

D. 

Dana,  Judge 36,  46,  61 

Dartmouth  College 35,  39 

Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  .  .  .  27,  28 
"  Defence  of  the  American  Constitution  "  ...  49 
Diary  (John  Adams) 2S 


Edwards,  Jonathan 15 

Emerson,  R.  W 59 

Everett,  Dr.  William 32 

F. 

Fessenden,  Eben,  Jr 60 

Fessenden,  Rev.  William 57 

First  Schoolhouse  in  Worcester 27,  28 

Fitzgibbon    ..........         23 

Forbes,  Mrs.  William  T .27 

Fortescue 23 

"  Fourth  of  July  Oration  "  .....         .  53,  54 

Franklin,  Benjamin 15 

Fryeburg,  Maine 36,  37,  47,  59,  66 

Fuller,  Habijah  W 35,  40,  41,  47,  48 


fln&ei  91 


G. 

Gardiner,  Major 14,  25 

General  Court 9 

George  II 13 

Gore,  Christopher 64 

Gorham,  John 15 

Gould,  E.  P 82 

Greene,  Nathaniel 11,  14,  20 

Gridley,  Jeremy   .........         24 

Griswold,  Dr -59 

H. 

Halifax 26 

Hall,  G.  Stanley 2S 

Hancock,  John 10,  31 

Hancock  Street,  Quincy 10 

Harvard  College 9'  10 

Hawkins'  "  Pleas  of  the  Crown  " 23 

Hawley ^o 

Hill,  Thomas  P 39>  51.  54>  57 

Hoar,  Senator  George  F .  28,  66 

Holyoke,  Dr 26 

Howe,  Caroline  Dana -59 

Howells,  William  D 59 

J. 

Jefferson,  Thomas •     3$*  49»  5$ 

Jockey  Cap 59 

K. 
Kent,  Mrs.  Daniel,  Regent  D.  A.  R.  Chapter     ...         28 

L. 
Langdon,  Paul     ......••  35 

Lewis,  A.  F 54>  55.  62 

"  Lillie's  Abridgment " 23 

Lincoln,  Enoch    ......•••         59 

Longfellow,  Henry  W 59»  60 


92 


If  n&ex 


Louisburg     . 
Lovewell's  Fight 
Love-well's  Pond 


M. 


Maccarty,  Rev.  Thaddeus    . 
Main  Street,  Worcester 
"  Maine  Misses  "  ... 

Marble,  Annie  Russell 
Mason,  Jeremiah 
Massachusetts  Colony 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society 

McGaw,  Mr 

Merrill,  Thomas  A. 

Morgan's  "  Moral  Philosopher  " 

Mosheim's  "Ecclesiastical  History 


N. 


New  Brunswick    . 
Newburyport,  Mass. 
New  York     . 
Northampton,  Mass. 


O. 


Oration  of  Webster 
Osgood,  James 
Osgood,  Kate  Putnam 
Osgood,  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel 
Oxford  House 


59. 


9>  15: 


46. 


48,  5i» 


60 
61 


16 

27 

47 
27 

27 

13 

28 

47 
49 
20 

49 


27 
47 
10 

15 

69 
36 
59 
55 
61 


Paine,  Dr.  William 26 

Pamphlet  of  Timothy  Bigelow  Chapter,  D.  A.  R.  ("  The 

First  Schoolhouse  in  Worcester ")       ....         27 

Peabody,  Andrew  P 59 

Pequawket    ..........  36,  47 

Pine  Hill •  37»  59 


fln&ei 


93 


Pingree,  Jasper 

53 

Poem  on  the  Death  of  Son  Charles  (Webster)   . 

79 

"  Poor  Richard's  Almanack" 

i.S 

Porter,  John 

41 

Portland,  Maine 

36 

Princeton  College         .... 

15 

"  Province  of  Massachusetts  "     . 

35 

Putnam,  James     ....         11,20,21,22,23,24 

25.  26 

Putnam,  Mrs 

20,  21 

Q. 

Quincy,  Mass 

10 

Quincy  Granite    .... 

27 

Q,  Dorothy           .... 

10 

Quincy,  Dorothy  (Hancock) 

10 

Quincy,  Hon.  Josiah    . 

13 

Quincy  Historical  Society   . 

25 

Quincy  Mansion,  Hancock  Street 

10 

R. 

Reed,  Rebecca  Perley 

59 

11  Russell's  Echo,  or  The  North  Star  " 

S. 

Salem,  Mass 

36 

47 

Salisbury,  N.  H. 

•  35.  57 

Salisbury,  Stephen 

27 

"  Salkeld's  Reports" 

23 

Sanborn,  Professor 

39 

Savil,  Dr.      . 

12 

Sewall,  Jonathan 

24 

Shirley,  Governor 

13 

Smith,  Abigail     . 

.  10,  16 

"  Social  Library  " 

48 

Souther,  Rev.  Samuel 

62 

"  Spy,"  Massachusetts 

12 

94 


Unfcei 


Stage    ....         

10 

"  Store  Account  "  of  Daniel  Webster 

5i 

Swedenborg 

15 

Swinburne    ......... 

23 

Sydenham     ......... 

20 

T. 

•  33,  65 

Thompson,  Thomas  W 35 

.  56>  57 

Tillotson 

19 

Titus,  Mrs.  Nelson  V. 

10 

Trowbridge           ........ 

U. 

Unitarian  Church,  Worcester      ..... 

.  15,  28 

V. 

Van  Swieten's  Commentaries      ..... 

20 

"  Vermont,"  Williams'         .... 

49 

Verses  written  for  Webster  Centennial,  E.  P.  Gould 

82 

W. 

Walker,  James 

64 

Washington,  George    ..... 

13 

Webb,  Nathan 

13 

Webster,  Daniel 

Webster,  Ezekiel           ..... 

35 

.  4°;  57 

Webster,  Fletcher         ..... 

63 

Webster  Memorial        .         .                  • 

54 

Welman,  Mr.         ...... 

M 

Weymouth    ....... 

10,  16 

Whittier,  John  G 

55>  59 

Willard,  Dr.  Nahun 

20 

25,  26 

Wood 

23 

Woman's  Clubhouse,  Worcester 

29 

Worcester,  Mass.          .         -         .9,  10,  11,  12,    13,  14,  17 

27>  35 

Worcester  Continental  Guards    ...... 

2S 

Worthington         ...... 

20 

CI  THIS  BOOK  WAS  PRINTED  IN 
THE  YEAR  NINETEEN  HUNDRED 
AND  THREE,  AT  THE  OFFICE 
OF  FRANK  WOOD,  BOSTON  i^ 
ILLUSTRATIONS  BY  AMERICAN 
ENGRAVING  COMPANY  ^  COVER 
DESIGN    BY     EMMA    E.    BROWN 


/ 


JUL    8   1903