repaired when he could be spared from home. "He was the brightest boy in the school," wrote the master many years afterward, "and Ezekiel next; but Daniel was much quicker at his studies than his brother. He would learn more in five minutes than another boy in five hours. One Saturday, I remember, I held up a handsome new jack-knife to the scholars, and said, the boy who would commit to memory the greatest number of verses in the Bible by Monday morning should have it. Many of the boys did well; but when it came to 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 chapters yet that he had learned. Daniel got that jack-knife." Mr. Webster never forgot his early tutor, and only a few months before his death wrote him a kind note inclosing a remittance. In the busy time of the year Daniel Webster assisted his father. He was a "handy" lad, and could learn how to do a thing with much quickness. He was particularly useful in assisting his father to saw logs at a little mill which he worked. Here, while waiting for the saw to pass through the logs (an operation which consumed about ten minutes), he economized his time by carefully studying some author whose prized volume he had brought with him. So tenacious was his memory, that, in the last year of his life, he was able to recite large portions of the works he had committed in this strange manner. It was at this period of his life that he first became acquainted with the Constitution of the United States, the first copy of which he perused on a cotton pocket-handkerchief imported from England.

When Mr. Webster had attained his fourteenth year, he had an opportunity of spending a few months at the Phillips Academy, Exeter, where he enjoyed the tuition and kindly counsels of Dr. Benjamin Abbot. He mastered the principles and philosophy of the English grammar in less than four months, and immediately commenced the study of the Latin. In his fifteenth year he was privileged to spend some months with the Rev. Samuel Woods, a popular divine who lived at Boscawen, and prepared boys for college at one dollar a week for tuition and board. Daniel was unmindful of the routine of the establishment, although he studied his lessons attentively and well. He seemed to be too fond of hunting in the neighborhood, and Mr. Woods

reprimanded him, giving him, as a punishment, a hundred lines of Virgil to commit to memory. Daniel made up his mind that he would be revenged. He knew that on the next day Mr. Woods wanted to get away from the school as early as possible, in order to pay a visit to a neighboring town; before going, however, he was to hear the hundred lines. On the following morning Daniel presented himself, book in hand, and without the slightest hesitation recited the hundred lines in a way which drew forth the commendation of his instructor. "I have a few more lines that I can recite,” said the malicious Daniel, as he observed Mr. Woods about to close the book and take his departure. An additional hundred lines were reeled off with the greatest ease. "You are

a smart boy," said Mr. Woods, making another start for the door. "I have a few more I can recite, sir," said Daniel, adding, by way of last feather to break the camel's back, "about five hundred, I think." This was more than the doctor had bargained for. He was behind time with his engagement, and was really the only one of the twain who received punishment. "That is enough, Dan; you may have the whole day for pigeon-shooting."

The extraordinary promise which Daniel Webster displayed induced his father, though ill able to bear the expense, to send him to Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1801. His progress in the college had been so rapid that it was fully expected he would have received the valedictory, but that was reserved for some more fortunate scholar. All that he received was a diploma, which he deliberately tore up in the presence of a few companions. "My industry may make me a great man," he said, "but this miserable parchment can not.” It must not be supposed

from this circumstance that Mr. Webster was indifferent to the advantages of a college education. On the contrary, the moment he returned home it became the object of his life to secure to his brother Ezekiel similar advantages. He felt probably a little indignant that he had received merely the common honors of the collegiate, when he had worked for something more praiseworthy. It was his determination now to become a schoolmaster, in order that he might have the funds to assist his brother. In a short time he established himself in Fryeburg, Maine, with a friend of his father. He received a salary of $350, and by devoting his evenings to the laborious occupation of copying deeds for the county recorder at twenty-five cents each, was able to make a

considerable increase to this sum. The latter occupation directed his attention to the study of the law, and while pursuing it he carefully read Blackstone's Commentaries and other substantial works, which contributed in a large measure to the solid foundation of his after-fame. Mr. Webster described himself at this time as "long, slender, pale, and all eyes." He was known round the country by the nickname of All Eyes. In his habits he was remarkably steady, his only recreation being trout-fishing, the solitary enjoyment of which he greatly enhanced by usually taking with him a volume of Shakspeare.

Mr. Webster studied the law with Mr. Christopher Gore, and was admitted to practice in Boston in 1805. Two years later he was admitted to practice in the courts of New Hampshire, and soon after took up his residence at Portsmouth, where he remained about nine years. He enjoyed a fair share of practice, and was able to assist his father in a pecuniary way, so as to relieve him of a burden of debts which pressed heavily on his spirits.

In 1817 Mr. Webster took up his permanent residence in the city of Boston. This step was rendered necessary by the condition of his finances, which had suffered greatly by his election to Congress (in 1812), and by a fire in which all his property was destroyed. In Boston he was well known and highly appreciated, but it was a dangerous experiment for a young man to thrust himself into an arena where the best forensic talent of the country struggled for pre-eminence. He had the friendship of a number of opulent merchants, and in a few months his name was known as the senior counsel in many important trials. His powers were soon recognized, and the sharpness of his invective, free, however, from narrowness or personality, became a matter of complaint with his brethren of the bar. The people appreciated this kind of oratory, and he soon became famous. "As were his manners at the bar some thirty years ago," says Mr. Knapp, "so were they through his life, whenever he appeared in a deliberative assembly. He began to state his points in a low voice, and in a slow, cool, cautious, and philosophical manner. If the case was of importance, he went on hammering out, link by link, the chain of argument with ponderous blows leisurely inflicted; and while thus at labor, you rather saw the sinews of the arm than the skill of the artist. It was in reply, however, that he came out in the majesty of intellectual grandeur, and poured forth the opulence of his mind;

it was when the arrows of the enemy had hit him that he was all might and soul, and showered his words of weight and fire. His style of oratory was founded on no model, but was entirely his own. He dealt not with the fantastical and poetical, but with the matter-of-fact every-day world, and the multifarious affairs of his fellow-men, extricating them from difficulties, and teaching them how to become happy. He never strove to dazzle, astonish, or confuse, but went on to convince and conquer by great but legitimate means. When he went out to battle he went alone, trusting to no earthly arm but his own. He asked for no trophies but his own conquests; he looked not for the laurel of victory, but it was proffered to him by all, and bound his brow until he went out on some new exploit."

"It

Mr. Webster's public career belongs to the history of the country. In this place it is only necessary to say that he occupied a prominent position in its councils for upward of forty years-for a good portion of the time being nearest to the President in position, and seldom falling beneath him in absolute power. was before he had attained his thirtieth year," says Mr. Lanman, in his interesting "Private Life of Daniel Webster," quoting from Knapp, “when the times were stormy, and party spirit ran high in view of a war with Great Britain, that he entered the field of politics, like one who had made up his mind to be decided and straightforward in all his actions. No politician was ever more direct and bold, and he had nothing of the demagogue about him. Fully persuaded of the true course, he followed it with so much firmness and principle that sometimes his serenity was taken by the furious and headstrong as apathy; but when a fair and legitimate opportunity offered, he came out with such strength and manliness that the doubting were satisfied and the complaining silenced. In the worst of times and the darkest hour, he had faith in the redeeming qualities of the people. They might be wrong, but he saw into their true character sufficiently to believe that they would never remain permanently in error. In some of his conversations upon the subject, he compared the people, in the management of the national affairs, to that of the sagacious and indefatigable raftsmen on his native Merrimac, who had falls and shoals to contend with in their course to the ocean, guiding fearlessly and skillfully over the former, between rocks and through breakers; and, when reaching the sand-banks, jumping

off into the water with lever, axe, and oar; and then, with pushing, cutting, and directing, made all rub and go, to the astonishment of those looking on. The first political glory that hung around his brow was at a convention of the great spirits in the county of Rockingham, where he then resided, and such representatives from other counties as were sent to this convention, to take into consideration the state of the nation, and to mark out such a course for themselves as should be deemed advisable by the collected wisdom of those assembled. On this occasion, an address, with a string of resolutions, were proposed for adoption, of which he was the author. They exhibited uncommon powers of intellect, and a profound knowledge of our national interests. He made a most powerful speech in support of these resolutions, portions of which were printed at the time, and much admired throughout the Union. From this time he belonged to the United States, and not to New Hampshire exclusively. Massachusetts also took as great an interest in his career as his native state. After the above débût, crowds gathered around him on every occasion that he appeared, and his speeches were invariably received with the most sincere and heartfelt applause." The preparation of these speeches was a matter of serious solicitude to Mr. Webster. He obtained the material for them with great care and industry, and wrought them with considerable labor. They were, on all important occasions, finished productions, which will endure as long as the language is read and understood. Mr. Webster was not a believer in extemporaneous oratory. The position he occupied before the world was undoubtedly one reason why he bestowed unusual care on all his efforts; another is to be found in the fact that he had never 66 gone through the mill" in State Legislatures. In alluding to this circumstance at Syracuse, Mr. Webster made the following humorous remarks: "It has so happened that all the public services which I have rendered in the world, in my day and generation, have been connected with the general government. I think I ought to make an exception. I was ten days a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and I turned my thoughts to the search of some good object in which I could be useful in that position; and, after much reflection, I introduced a bill, which, with the general consent of both houses of the Massachusetts Legislature, passed into a law, and is now a law of the state, which enacts that no man in the state shall catch