SCIENCE OF A GREAT LIFE.

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the praise ever bestowed upon any two of our presidents, ex cepting Washington, or upon any five of the most distinguished of those of his American cotemporaries that survive him; and yet, it is certainly to be doubted whether all that has been uttered, privately and publicly, in congress, in the courts, from the pulpits, and among the people, has added anything to the stock of his reputation.

Under such circumstances, it is idle any longer to pronounce eulogiums upon Daniel Webster. The time for them has passed. Something more to the purpose, more valuable, mcre lastingly useful, must now take their place. When it is con sidered, that the man, who rose to all this importance, to all this fame, to this world-wide influence, sprang from a humble origin, and grew up to what he was without the aid of extraor dinary advantages, with scarcely one advantage which he did not make for himself, his life and character become at once a most interesting and instructive study. To know such a man thoroughly is like knowing a great science. His career, in fact, taken in all its bearings and relations, in its beginning, its gradual development, its proud triumphs, its glorious termination, is a science. It is the chief of all the sciences. It is the science of human life. It is the science of life as exhibited on a large scale, in a most interesting period of history, on a new theater of action, influenced by a new order of civilization, by new laws, new associations, and novel circumstances. To understand this science well, as set forth in the great example now before us, is to understand the history and present condition of our country, to understand the important questions now involved in every consideration of its future, to understand the relations existing between this country and other countries, and to comprehend the age in which the great man lived, as in his lite the age was itself comprehended.

CHAPTER II.

THE WEBSTER FAMILY.

DANIEL WEBSTER, the youngest son of Ebenezer and Abigail Webster, was born at Salisbury, New Hampshire, on the 18th of January, 1782, the last year of the Revolutionary War. He died at Marshfield, in the state of Massachusetts, on the 24th of October, 1852, at the advanced age of more than seventy years. To speak exactly, he was seventy years, rine months, and six days old, the day he died. He was born in obscurity, on the north-eastern frontier of the United States, on the verge of civilization in that direction, his father living in the last occupied house next to the Canadian line. He died as Secretary of State of the United States, the most known, the most celebrated, the most powerful and influential citizen of his country.

With

The family of the Websters, which had settled in Kingston, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, seems to have been highly respectable. Strength of mind, and decision of character, appear to have been the most notable of its characteristic traits. Another feature was its desire to establish and perpetuate itself. out any of the aristocracy of family, as exhibited in monarchical countries, it looked well to its own existence, and wished to hand down, from one generation to another, a reputation that should honor the past and give promise of the future. As a specimen of this feeling, it is a curious fact, that the eldest brother of Daniel, his father, grandfather and great-grand

Not

father, who were all eldest sons, were named Ebenezer. only this cherished name, but the history of the whole family, in all its branches, evinces, also, its third strongest peculiarity, a decided inclination to religion. Perhaps no family in the country, not excepting any of New England, can show in its records a larger list of names, in proportion to the whole number, taken from the Scriptures.

Another marked peculiarity of the Webster family was its love of knowledge. They were strikingly intellectual. It is related of Daniel Webster's father, who was apprenticed to a trade at an early age, that, though he never went to school a day in his life, he made himself a good reader while quite a youth, and afterwards became a man noted for the extent, depth and accuracy of his information. While a boy, he studied late of nights, by the blaze of pitch-pine knots, when his master and the family were asleep. Those who remember him in mature age say, that he was then the best reader, the best elocutionist, and the most thoroughly informed man, of the place where he lived. The books he read most, and which he most admired, were the plays of Shakspeare and the bible; and his taste, in this respect, seems to have followed him to the most distinguished of his children.

Patriotism was another mark of the Webster family. All through the earliest periods of the history of New England, it furnished soldiers, but more commonly officers, to the companies raised for the defence of the inhabitants. In 1757, the French and Indian war was raging with uncommon violence. The enemy seemed to be advancing regularly and successfully with the plan of destroying the American colonies. An emergency at length arose. A new enlistment was ordered for the protection of the north-eastern frontier against the savages. It was at this time, and for this purpose, that that celebrated corps, known in history as Roger's Rangers, was commissioned. All its members were to be picked men, selected from the lead

ing families, and known to be hardy, able-bodied, and courage ous. By the side of Stark, and Putnam, and several others, who afterwards became heroes in the revolution, the father of Daniel Webster, then but eighteen years of age, was enrolled to fight the battles of his country. Some of those battles are reputed as among the most brilliant ever fought even on the blood-stained soil of New England. The services required of this band of men were exceedingly difficult and dangerous. They were to do their work in winter. They were to be doubly armed, to be prepared for all the rigors of the season, to carry with them snow-shoes that they might be able to march through the trackless forests, ascend and descend the snow-clad mountains, and pursue the enemy without regard to the changes or chances of the weather. They were also to carry skates, to enable them to cross the frozen streams and lakes, or to meet the savage foe upon the ice. Into this company, for this business, and with these horrors in the prospect, Ebenezer Webster, the eldest son, was permitted to enlist. try was stronger than the love of family. performed his duty. The exploits of his company, when told by the few that lived to see their own firesides again, appeared like fiction; and from that day, the survivors were marked men, the heroes of their neighborhoods, set down in public opinion as equal to any demand that could be made upon them.

The love of coun

The son went and

A demand afterwards arose. At the age of thirty-six, under the command of Stark, he was commissioned as a captain, and joined the army of the revolution. General Burgoyne had entered the territory of New York. He had taken Ticonderoga, and was advancing, by rapid marches, across the state. His object seemed to be to penetrate New England and reach the seaboard. General Stark marched out to meet him. his way, he fought the battle of Bennington, in which Captain Webster took a leading part. Subsequently, at the battle of White Plains, Webster was again among the heroes of the

On

HIGH AND LOW BIRTH.

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day; and, at a still later period, he had the satisfaction of witnessing, as a soldier, the surrender of the British general on the plains of Saratoga.

In other countries, to be descended from the most ancient family is accounted the greatest honor. In this, we have no prejudices of such a nature; but if we had, it would be honor enough for any young man to be the son of a revolutionary soldier. This honor Daniel Webster had; and this, except that patent to nobility which nature stamped upon his mind, was his only fortune. His father, it is true, before the close of the revolutionary war, had purchased a large tract of land north of Concord, in New Hampshire; but the land was wild, the growth of the primeval forest still standing dense upon it. With his own hands, principally, the soldier cleared a few acres and erected a log cabin for his family. In this humble spot, far enough from the refinements of life, such as they were in this country at that period, several of Daniel Webster's brothers and sisters were born; but, upon his birth, his father had so improved in his circumstances, as to have built a small framed addition to the original structure. In this new

part, Daniel first saw the light; and nearly sixty years af terwards, he referred to the event in a characteristic manner. In a speech delivered at Saratoga, in the month of August, 1840, he was advocating the election of General Harrison, who was sneeringly styled the "log cabin candidate; " and Mr. Webster took occasion, in a very beautiful and artful manner, to make capital out of the epithet for his client, by a reference which he knew would cast no dishonor upon himself: "It is only shallow-minded pretenders," said the orator, "who either make distinguished origin matter of personal merit, or obscure origin raatter of personal reproach. Taunt and scoffing at the humble condition of early life, affect nobody in this country but chose who are foolish enough to indulge in them; and they are generally sufficiently punished by public rebuke. A man,